James Brown has sung about hot pants, Jamaicans are legendary for their batty riders, but in England when a bread fry went awry? CNN says it was underwear what kept the flames undercover –

John Marsey and his cousin Darren Lines were frying bread in Jenny Marsey’s kitchen in Hartlepool, northeast England, over the weekend when their meal caught fire.

Lines grabbed the nearest thing from a pile of laundry to put it out: his aunt’s billowing, powder blue, size XL underpants.

He ran them under the faucet and tossed them onto the flames, successfully smothering the fire, a spokesman for the Cleveland Fire Brigade said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

Darren’s aunt was not upset over the loss of her briefs, as she was more worried that folks could have been hurt. But exactly how safe is the method of the Hartlepool resident’s rescue? According to CNN’s source, not too bad –

The fire official said the general principle of using a large, wet cloth to cover a grease fire was a sound one.

As for using underwear: “Clearly it depends on what size you are — but I don’t want to go there.”