EEH bah gum - Selby firefighter Barry Martland came up with a novel solution when he and his crew were faced with a sticky situation.

They had been called to a road accident, in The Courtneys, Selby, in which a motorbike had fractured a gas meter box at the side of the road.

Although the motorcyclist escaped uninjured, gas was leaking out of a hole in the meter.

Barry came to the rescue, reaching into his pocket for his favourite chewing gum.

He said: "I popped a couple of sticks into my mouth, chewed it as fast as I could and then stuck a ball of gum into the hole. It did the trick nicely.

"I always carry a packet of chewing gum with me. It keeps my mouth fresh and comes in very handy."

A spokesman for Transco said the motorbike had damaged a gas pipe leading to the pressure recorder and to make it safe they cut the pipe off.

He said: "We thank the firefighter for his initiative, but using chewing gum is not a conventional or authorised way of plugging a gas leak and we would not encourage it."

Updated: 08:33 Thursday, September 25, 2003