103-year-old woman puts out bed fire

She was on her way to bed Monday night when she discovered her bed was on fire.

“Right when I sat down on the edge of my bed it felt very warm on my backside. At the same time, I smelled something burning and discovered that the mattress had caught fire,” she said to the Västerviks-Tidningen (VT) newspaper.

She reacted quickly.

The cause of the fire was an electric heat cushion, and Ulla hustled over to pull the plug out of the wall.

She then fetched a pitcher of water and put out the flames herself.

When the fire department arrived, all that was left to do was to air out the smoke-filled room.

Firefighter Mattias Sköld described Ulla’s work as both exemplary and resourceful.

“She did everything exactly right,” he told VT.

The 103-year-old escaped the incident without injury, but was nevertheless surprised at the size of the response from the fire department.

“There were quite a few firemen who suddenly showed up in my bedroom,” she said.

Ulla told the newspaper she won’t be purchasing a new electric heat cushion to keep her hands and feet in the future.

“I’ll probably just get an honourable, old-fashioned rubber bottle that you fill with warm water,” she said.