A man and his dog were rescued from a burning flat last night.

Fire crews were called to a blaze in a first floor flat in West Street, in Banbury, at around 8.30pm.

Firefighters found large amounts of smoke from the front and rear of the three-storey terraced building.

A neighbour told fire crews man and a dog were still in the flat who were then both rescued from the front room.

The fire did not spread from a ground floor kitchen but the rest of the flat and the floor above suffered severe smoke damage.

An investigation into the cause of the fire revealed that it had started in the grill pan of the cooker, which had then spread to the kitchen cabinets and ceiling.

A spokesman for the fire service said: “This was a very lucky individual, for the quantity and severity of the smoke logging that was present, it was amazing to find this person in a conscious state, if we had not been alerted to the fire, and arrived as quickly as we did, then the outcome could have been very different”.

Fire fighters are appealing for a man who helped the crew with vital information about who was left in the flat to contact them on 08000 325 999.