Councillor accidentally sets fire to his papers while on video call

Councillor accidentally sets fire to his papers while on video call thumbnail

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A councillor managed to start a small fire during a live-streamed meeting, but none of his colleagues appeared to notice.

Tom Sleigh was taking part in a meeting of the City of London Resource Allocation Sub-Committee when his papers went up in flames.

Mr Sleigh could be seen on his webcam attempting to douse the emerging blaze as a fellow councillor talked about the ‘need to make choices.’

In a clip of the incident, he tries to blow out the burning piece of paper but has to take evasive action and throws it on the floor.

He then attempts to style it out and rejoin the conversation, albeit it with some hot ash floating in the air around him.

Despite the drama the meeting of 30 councillors appeared to carry on without mention of what was happening.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Sleigh said he was using a USB lighter to light a candle when he accidentally set fire to his papers.

The councillor, who represents Bishopsgate in the city, managed to put the flames out quickly but was left with badly burnt fingers which he had to ‘plunged into a cold sink’ afterwards.

Sharing a video of the clip on Twitter after the meeting, he said: ‘Today didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped.’

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