FIREFIGHTERS rescued a man last night after he fell asleep while his flat burned around him.

Neighbours called emergency services just after 8pm when they noticed flames in the window of the ground floor flat in Liverpool Road, Eccles.

Firemen broke into the building and found Neville Evans, aged 44, unconscious on his bed.

Mr Evans was carried from the building and treated on the scene by a fire service trauma technician before being taken to Hope Hospital.

Sub officer Mike McKiernan from Eccles Fire Station said Mr Evans was extremely lucky to be alive. "Had the neighbours not noticed the fire so soon and we hadn't got there so quickly, things could be very different," he said.

The living room of the flat was destroyed by the fire and the cause is still being investigated.

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