Firemen, police and ambulance - all for a smelly fridge!

The Christmas bustling at a town centre in Marlborough, Wilts, was brought to a standstill - because of a small refrigerator.

London, Dec 02 : The Christmas bustling at a town centre in Marlborough, Wilts, was brought to a standstill - because of a small refrigerator.

People started becoming aware of a mysterious smell that was coming from the basement of a 300-year-old hotel, and alerted the firemen, police and ambulance crews.

The staff of the Ivy House Hotel feared that there was a chemical leak in the laundry room, and called the emergency services as guests were eating their breakfast.

There were fire crews from up to 20 miles away who came to the hotel and an environmental protection unit from Warminster was also called in as police closed off the surrounding streets.

However, after an extensive search of the building was conducted on Friday Nov 30, the source of the smell was found to be ammonia leaking from a small fridge that was used for storing sandwiches.

"There was no way the staff could tell exactly what caused this smell or the nature of the chemical. They did exactly the right thing by calling us," the Telegraph quoted Gary Heap, of Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service as saying.

ANI