A police officer and the man he was rescuing made a desperate jump to safety from the lean-to roof of a burning house as thick black smoke engulfed them.

Pcs Simon Pearce, Paul Roberts and Neal Templey Pc Neal Templey had climbed onto the building at the side of the house in Bailey Road, Cowley, yesterday, to help a man hanging out a window, screaming he couldn't breathe.

Pc Templey and colleagues, Pcs Paul Roberts and Simon Pearce, were hailed heroes after they rescued three people from the blaze.

Pc Pearce, who was first on the scene, spotted the fire, which started at 9am, and called the fire service.

He said: "I went to the back, threw a tennis ball at a first floor window and a man appeared.

"There was lots of smoke and the house was well alight. The man jumped onto the roof of a conservatory, went straight through and landed on the washing machine."

He was then led to safety.

Pcs Templey and Roberts were next on the scene. Pc Templey said: "When we got to the garden there was a man hanging from the first floor window screaming 'I can't breathe'. He couldn't jump because he thought the first man had fallen into the inferno."

Pcs Pearce and and Roberts lifted Pc Templey onto the lean-to roof.

Pc Templey said: "I could see a wooden beam going across the middle of the conservatory where the roof had been. The smoke was getting heavier and thicker and a window had blown out at the front of the house.

"The man took hold of my right arm and stretched out with his left foot to reach the wooden beam. I pulled him towards me and we got onto the more solid roof of the lean-to.

"Within seconds, a massive amount of black smoke came over me and I couldn't see in front of me."

Pcs Roberts and Pearce kept shouting 'jump', until Pc Templey jumped, followed by the resident.

Pc Templey added: "I'd never been around smoke that thick before and didn't realise how hard it was to breathe."

The men were taken to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation. No one was seriously injured.

Pc Roberts added: "We should mention the firefighters, because they were brilliant."

Three people were rescued from the house and the fire caused serious damage to the bedroom, kitchen and hallway and the heat shattered a window pane.

Three fire engines with 16 firefighters tackled the blaze, which fire officers said was caused by an electric fire.