A QUICK-THINKING neighbour hoisted a ladder to help a woman clamber to safety as her terraced home went up in flames.

The blaze drama began at around 4am on Sunday morning in an end terraced house in Glebe Street, Leigh. When firefighters arrived the house was well ablaze and flames from the lounge window were shooting 10 feet into the street.

Fortunately a 40-year-old woman who had been inside the house escaped by clambering out of her bedroom window onto the roof of a kitchen extension. A neighbour helped her down with an extension ladder.

She declined hospital treatment.

One of four firefighters who went inside the house suffered hand burns in the incident which is believed to have been started by a cigarette. Firefighters put out the blaze but the downstairs rooms were gutted and there was extensive smoke damage upstairs.