A MAN is recovering in hospital after fire crews pulled his 'lifeless' body from a burning flat.

Neighbours raised the alarm after hearing a series of loud bangs and spotting smoke coming from Steven Mahon's first floor flat at Hampstead Mews, North Shore, just before midnight on Sunday, April 6.

Fire crews broke through a window of the two-storey building to find him unconscious and engulfed by flames in the living room.

After dragging the badly-burned man to safety outside, crews managed to revive him with the kiss of life and oxygen treatment until paramedics arrived. Mr Mahon was then rushed Blackpool Victoria Hospital before being transferred to the burns unit at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, where he is now in intensive care.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but it is thought to have started accidentally.

A Lancashire Fire spokesman said: "Mr Mahon was very lucky, had it taken longer for neighbours to raise the alarm crews would have been powerless to save him."