A 92-YEAR-OLD widow had a narrow escape when fire broke out in her Beckford home last Friday morning.

Rose Hoare was fast asleep when the electric fuse box in her hallway caught alight shortly before 5am.

She claims she owes her life to the smoke alarm which woke her up.

Sitting in a neighbour's house a few hours after her ordeal, Mrs Hoare said: "I've always had a smoke alarm, but I didn't think it was very good because it never went off.

"This time I had smoke and it did go off and woke me up. It went off loudly and then all the lights went off and I couldn't find my way out. There was smoke coming into the bedroom. The only way out was to go past it. It was very, very hot and burning me everywhere.

"If I hadn't had the smoke alarm I'd have been burned to death. I'd never have got out of the place.

"Everyone should have a smoke alarm. It's very important.

"I always wondered whether I would hear it if it went off, because I'm deaf and I can't hear a thing when I go to bed. But believe me I heard that. The noise was terrific."

The noise also woke Mrs Hoare's neighbours who raised the alarm.

Mrs Hoare praised the Evesham firemen who were at the scene for two hours with electricity workers and an ambulance crew.

"They were wonderful" she said.

Leading firefighter John Wood confirmed that the smoke detector saved Mrs Hoare's life.

"It gave her that extra couple of minutes to get out" he said.