Cigarette causes house blaze

Rochdale fire fighters are urging residents to discard of cigarettes carefully following a fire at a maisonette in Smallbridge at the weekend.

Early on Sunday morning crews from Rochdale, Littleborough and Heywood attended the blaze on Bower Avenue.

A carelessly discarded cigarette is thought to have caused the fire in the living room, which spread through laminate flooring to other parts of the house.

A 54-year old man was fortunately able to escape before firefighters were on the scene after a neighbour raised the alarm. She heard the smoke alarm sounding and saw the man standing in a bedroom window. She assisted him before the emergency services arrived.

Two fire fighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the fire using a hosereel and the smoke that was produced was pushed out of the flat using a positive pressure fan.

The man was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation but declined hospital treatment.