A retirement home was evacuated after a kitchen fire on Friday evening.

Twenty-one people were led to safety from the home in Salisbury Road, Worcester Park after a fire started in the kitchen just after 6pm on Friday (July 28).

Two firefighters wore breathing apparatus to protect themselves from the smoke as they put out the blaze using a hose reel.

The kitchen is now “smoke-damaged”, a crew member from Banstead fire station told the Epsom Guardian.

“Everyone was OK,” his colleague from Epsom fire station added.