A YOUNG woman asleep in her flat was pulled to safety by a neighbour after a fire broke out in her building.

The fire started in the bedroom of another apartment on the first floor of the end terrace house, in Norfolk Street, Nelson, in the early hours of this morning.

Neighbours were alerted to the fire by the sound of a window being blown out by the blaze

Realising that someone was still inside, a man went into the building, kicked down the front door of the first flat and brought her out.

Everyone was out of the building by the time the fire crews arrived at the scene. They used thermal imaging equipment and worked for nearly two hours to put out the blaze. They managed to contain it to the bedroom where it started.

Sub Officer Mark Woodward said: "The bedroom was well alight when we arrived. Flames were coming out of the window."

He said they were not treating the cause of the fire as suspicious but investigations as to what started it were on-going.

Sub Officer Woodward also added that they would be looking for the man who helped the woman in the flat escape.

He said: "He has done a good job and officers will be going back later today to speak to him."

The woman was taken to hospital by paramedics to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Another woman, who lives in one of the flats, but was at a neighbour's house at the time and saw the blaze, was also taken to hospital to be treated for shock.