A CHEF who escaped a blaze in Marlow last summer has been at the centre of a media storm this week after he vented his anger on Twitter after being sacked.

Head chef Jim Knight was sacked from The Plough Pub in Great Haseley and deciding he would not go quietly- he took to the pub’s Twitter account to express his unhappiness.

His messages got thousands of retweets in minutes and he has appeared on Sky News and BBC.

Mr Knight escaped a fire at the Two Brewers Pub in Marlow in August, where he worked at the time. His dog woke him up and alerted him to the blaze.

Mr Knight, who said he had set up the Twitter account with the permission of his bosses at The Plough, began tweeting from @ploughpub on Sunday night.

He posted: "We’d like to inform you that we’ve just fired our head chef. "Unfortunately he wanted to have a weekend off this month and Christmas Day this year for family commitments so we thought we’d sack him.

"Yeah a week before Christmas! "We don’t care that he has a 7 and a half month old baby daughter."

Landlord of The Plough, Steve Potts defended the decision to dismiss Mr Knight, who he said had informed his employer he could not work Christmas Day or any Sundays "in the near future".

Mr Potts, landlord said: "When Jim, as head chef, informed me that he would not be working on Christmas Day, and other Sundays in the near future, I was left with little choice but to end our arrangement. I had been quite clear with him when he started here in October that Sundays are our busiest days of the week, and that all our chefs have to work that day."

Mr Knight, who is from High Wycombe, said on his personal Twitter account that he asked for the time off so he could spend it with his new baby daughter.

From his personal account - @chefjimknight - he posted: "It’s my daughter’s first Christmas. I wouldn't miss that for ANYTHING."

He has since landed a new job at The Shepherd’s Crook in Crowell, near Thame.