AN ELDERLY man rescued from a house fire in Blackbird Leys was lucky to be alive, Oxford firefighters said.

Fire crews were called to Druce Way at 4.20pm on Friday to deal with a blaze on the ground floor of a three-bedroom house.

A woman had got out of the house but firefighters had to rescue the man – who was the owner of the house – from the first-floor landing.

The fire was caused by an electrical fault in a microwave oven.

Incident commander Gary D’Anger said: “When we got there the smoke was issuing from the front door. The house was smoke-logged and every room was smoke damaged, even though it was a relatively small fire.

“The firefighters searched the house and found him on the landing.

“He was still conscious but he was suffering smoke inhalation.

“If we hadn’t have gone in there, he wouldn’t have got out himself.”

Mr D’Anger urged residents to fit smoke alarms properly on both floors of their house.

He said: “There was only a smoke alarm on the ground floor and it was fitted to the wall and not the ceiling.

“If this fire had happened at night, the effects could have been lethal.”