Mildenhall Nostalgia - Firefighters mistakenly turn hoses on Indian restaurant's Tandoori oven

In today's nostalgia we look back to 1995 when firefighters left an Indian restaurant minus its traditional cooking oven.

That's because they turned their hoses on what they believed was a fire.

Smoke was spotted coming from the Gandhi Restaurant in Mildenhall High Street and the fire service was called.

But staff later returned to find that instead of glowing hot coals to cook the next batch of Tandoori meals there was water at the bottom of a cold cooking pot and dank charcoal outside in the yard.

Restaurant owner Mr Siraj Begg said staff stoked up the clay-lined cooking stove with charcoal, used to bake Tandoori chicken, before they left for lunch.

The charcoal may have been damp and caused the smoke which was spotted by a neighbour who dialled 999.

He said: "When my staff returned there was a note to say there had been a small fire in the kitchen which had to be put out.

"Of course there was a fire in the kitchen. There has been for 16 years to cook the food. I suppose it is funny now. We were able to get back cooking again the same evening."