FIRE chiefs have urged residents to fit smoke detectors after a family had a narrow escape from a blaze.

An 18-year-old man awoke to find the lounge ablaze after falling asleep in front of an over-loaded open fire in Tadmarton Road, Bloxham. He led his three siblings, who were asleep upstairs, to safety and called the fire brigade, at about midnight on Thursday last week. He then went back into the house to fight the fire and suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation. The house was heavily damaged by smoke.

The fire has prompted fire chiefs to warn householders after no smoke detectors were found in the property, owned by Charter Housing. The family were re-homed.

Incident commander station manager Marcus Reay said: “The fire was intense enough to make the plaster come off the walls. The overloaded open fire had spilled out to nearby magazines and also set fire to a book case.”

He added: “This emergency could have easily had a different ending.

“You’re twice as likely to die in a fire if you don’t have working smoke alarms.”