Firefighters were called to a Llandovery café last night after a chip pan unit caught fire.

Fire crews from Llandeilo and Llandovery attended a fire at West End Café at 9pm on Sunday, May 19.

A spokesperson for Mid and West Fire and Rescue Service said: “Upon attendance, Firefighters were faced with a chip pan unit that was well alight.

"Firefighters extinguished the fire using one Hose Real Jet, two breathing apparatus sets and one thermal imaging vamera was also used as part of the offensive operation.”

An eyewitness told The Guardian: “I was shopping in Llandovery town when I saw the fire brigade arrive at the West End Café.

“The remarkable response speed from the staff at the West End Café, and what is believed to be a former staff member of the cafe, to extinguish the fire within the initial few seconds to bring the fire under control, coupled with the astonishing response time by some of the Llandovery based personnel of 13 firefighters, with the Llandeilo based team of firefighters ably supporting shortly afterwards, brought a huge acknowledgement of appreciation from the West End Cafe’s proprietor, Mark Vince.

"Mr Vince was full of unreserved admiration and praise for his hard working and loyal staff who’d responded so efficiently and gallantly to quell the fire in those critical initial seconds, which defines a dusting down operation to dealing with a real incident."

Llandovery based electrician, Martin Rees, was there in the initial few minutes ensuring the electricity supply was safe with Huw ‘Acker’ Clark, of Des Clark and Son, offering his plumbing services expertise.

Mark Vince said: “I can’t thank the emergency services enough for what they’ve achieved here tonight.”

“It could have been much worse and many thanks to everyone involved for all their assistance in the containment of this incident.”