A dryer at Shelly Bay laundromat in Hamilton Parish caught fire creating noxious fumes and smoke that drove laundry customers from the building and also affected the neighbouring pizza restaurant where the owners were busy making cookies at lunchtime on Monday.

A laundromat customer and the co-owner of the Pizza House tried to extinguish the burning clothes in one of the dryers, but the foam extinguishers they used were not enough to douse the flames and they eventually had to retreat as noxious smoke filled the building. Fire crews were quickly on the scene, close to the Market Place supermarket at the bottom of The Crawl, and needed to use breathing apparatus to enter the building and tackle the fire.

The woman whose washing caught fire as it was being dried in one of the machines said all the clothes of her six-year-old nephew who is visiting from the States had been destroyed. “I was using two dryers, one above the other. The fire started in the top dryer. I tried to call 911 but they were busy and then I called my mother. All my nephew’s clothes were burnt. He’s here on holiday and he’s lost everything,” said the woman, who did not give her name.

Customer Stuart Hollis tried to save the woman’s laundry by pulling the smouldering clothes from the dryer and using a foam fire extinguisher to put out the flames. But even though the clothes were pulled from the machine and wheeled outside in a basket they re-ignited.

“The clothes were smouldering and when I pulled them out they caught fire. I used the extinguisher but what was needed was water. When it got too smoky everyone got out,” said Mr. Hollis.

Another to tackle the emergency before firefighters arrived was Franz Egenolf, who together with his wife Shirley runs the neighbouring Pizza House.

The smoke and fumes from the fire in the laundrette spread through to the pizza restaurant, but did not cause any damage.

Firefighters used fans to push fresh air into the two buildings after the incident, which occurred shortly before 1 p.m. yesterday. Bermuda Fire Service Divisional Officer Anthony Caisey, at the scene, said: “There was a fire in one of the dryers.

“We are now ventilating the property and waiting for someone from the management to arrive so that we can look at the electrical system and determine if it has been damaged at what the cause of the fire might have been.”