Sharon Osbourne forced employee into burning fire to save artwork then fired him for not laughing

Former X Factor judge also took the assistant’s oxygen mask off and gave it to her dog

Sharon Osbourne has revealed she forced a former employee into her burning house to save artwork, before sacking him for not laughing about the incident afterwards.

Osbourne made the confession on the Would I Lie To You? Christmas special, admitting she tore an oxygen mask off the assistant’s face and gave it to one of her dogs before sending him back inside the blaze.

“I once sacked a member of my staff because he showed absolutely no sense of humour during a house fire,” she said.

Osbourne explained that the fire started in the living room after she and her husband Ozzy had left a candle burning when they went to bed.

The pair were awoken by the fire alarm going off in the night, and after Sharon sent Ozzy down the stairs she heard him shouting for help because his arm and half his hair was on fire.

Sharon said she then hit Ozzy with a magazine to try to put the fire out before pushing him into a fountain. She woke up his assistant, ordering him to “go in and get the paintings out”.

When he initially refused, Sharon told him: “How very dare you. You work here and you get more paintings out right now.”

Sharon added: “I took the mask and I put it on my dog. After this terrible night he was not talking to me. Ozzy and I were recounting everything and we were laughing and laughing. He goes, ‘I don’t see what is funny about any of this. I think I’m going to have damaged lungs.’

“I said, ‘If you don’t think that’s funny, do you think this is funny? You’re fired.’”