Former The Only Way is Essex star Pete Wicks recently shared a “near death” experience that forced him to “evacuate” his home.
During a candid conversation with his close friend and former Made in Chelsea star, Jamie Laing on his Private Parts podcast, Pete revealed a potentially fatal incident that took place at his home during the UK’s Coronavirus restrictions.
He explained how he used to “get up every day and drink myself into a stupor in the garden”, leading him to purchase a shisha smoking pipe on Amazon to make the most of the rare good weather in the UK. To use the smoking device, he had to heat coals over his stove.
However, after completing this task, disaster almost struck as he left the gas on, reports Lancs Live.
He said: “So I was outside smoking the shisha and I went back in and there was a bit of a weird smell and suddenly this alarm started going off and I thought ‘what the f*** is that’ so I’m checking the smoke alarms in the house and it’s none of them.”
He continued: “So I’m just wandering around my house p***** and I thought ‘what the f*** is that’ and, at the back of the cupboard is a carbon monoxide alarm and, all the while, gas is still going. And then all of a sudden I started to feel a bit light-headed.”
Pete recalled how an afternoon party with his two dogs took a dangerous turn, forcing him to evacuate his home due to carbon monoxide. He said: “I had to evacuate the house because I worked out it was carbon monoxide and I had to fumigate.”
He continued by explaining the difficult choices he had to make for safety: “I had to send the dogs to my mum’s to stay and I slept outside. Because I didn’t want to leave the house completely.”
The colourless and odourless nature of carbon monoxide makes it especially treacherous, with NHS warnings stating it can make you “seriously ill”.
Symptoms to watch for are headaches, dizziness, feeling sick or weak, confusion, shortness of breath, and muscle pain. Roughly 30 people in England and Wales succumb to its effects annually.
Separately, Pete shared another perilous incident during filming for Celebrity SAS where he sustained injuries after a helicopter jump, only later realizing he had broken two ribs.
Known chiefly for his role on The Only Way is Essex from 2015 to 2022, Pete has been a regular fixture on British television, also featuring in shows like Celebs Go Dating and achieving fourth place in Strictly Come Dancing last year.