Two good samaritans helped a sleeping student escape from a burning building after they spotted thick black smoke billowing from the second floor and raised the alarm.

Carrie Gilbert, 29, from South Hinksey and her half brother Max Poppleton, 21,were driving along White House Road, in Grandpont, Oxford, just before 1.30pm today when they smelt smoke.

They looked up and saw it was pouring out of a window at number 15. While Mr Poppleton rang the fire brigade, Miss Gilbert knocked on the doors of 11, 13 and 15 to check to see if anyone was home.

The Poulter family live at numbers 15 and 13, which have been knocked together, and when the fire started student Michael Poulter, 21, was asleep in an upstairs bedroom at number 13 - just metres from the fire.

He was woken by the ringing doorbell and managed to get out of the building safely. Fire crews and a hydraulic ladder were on the scene within three minutes and firefighters saved 80 per cent of the building.

Miss Gilbert said: "I thought I will keep my finger on the doorbell button until it kills me to alert them. The smoke was coming out full pelt, and the windows started smashing."

Mr Poppleton added: "There were no fire alarms going off when we drove past but we could hear the crackling and there was a very strong smell of burning wood."

Mr Poulter said he was extremely grateful.

He said: "Somebody rang and rang on the door bell until I went down. She said 'do you realise your house is on fire?' I quickly ran round and shut all the doors before getting out of there."

Nobody was injured. Kidlington station manager Paul Waknel said fire investigators were trying to establish the cause of the fire.

He said: "We were told that there was a person inside the building, but when we got there the owner confirmed that the person they thought was in there was actually out.

"The fire gutted the second floor bedroom and we were a little bit concerned that it had spread to the roof.

"A fire crew was on the scene within three minutes and all appliances were here within 10 minutes, which is excellent."

Mr Waknel said smoke alarms were fitted in the building, but urged members of the public to make sure they too had alarms and that they worked.