Three men are lucky to be alive following a blaze that filled their homes in Oxford with thick, choking smoke.

The scene of the fire in Jericho, Oxford

The fire began at 6.30am yesterday in a basement bathroom in one of the two flats in the four-storey property in Walton Well Road, Jericho.

Twenty-five firefighters arrived in five engines to tackle the fire and rescued the three men, all in their 40s, from the house.

With smoke pouring from the flats, they put up ladders to pull two of the men from a first-floor window and freed a third from the flat in the basement.

Two of the men were unconscious by the time the fire crews arrived.

Incident commander Mat Carlile told the Oxford Mail that the men were lucky to be alive because although there were two smoke alarms in the property, they were not working.

He said: "One of the men in the upstairs flat realised there was smoke and called us.

"They were all incredibly lucky that he called us when he did, because smoke can be a killer. If you have smoke alarms, you must check the batteries to ensure that they are working.

"The fire started in the basement bathroom, and although it was not huge, it generated a large amount of smoke and everything in the house was covered.

"The entire flat was very badly damaged by smoke and I would say it is only just habitable.

"Having a working smoke alarm is important enough, but even more so during the party season when people tend to drink more and use candles and fairy lights.

"You should check your smoke alarm once a week."

Mr Carlile added that two of the three men needed hospital treatment, and one, an asthma sufferer, was on a ventilator in the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Headington.

He said the blaze was not being treated as suspicious and an investigation was continuing to establish the cause.

A note was left outside the house yesterday urging residents to look out for a white cat which went missing at the time of the fire, and balloons tied up outside suggested there had been a party.

When contacted by the Oxford Mail, the residents declined to comment.