FIREFIGHTERS had to sledgehammer their way through two doors to reach a woman trapped inside a blazing house, in the same street where a family lost their lives in a fire in April.

The unnamed woman, believed to be in her early 20s, had fallen asleep after lighting a chip pan at her first-floor flat early yesterday.

Firefighters arrived at the burning flat in Russell Street, Stockton, after they received a call from a neighbour who reported seeing smoke.

She slept through the din of the fire brigade's break-in as they smashed down two doors with sledgehammers.

Fire Station Officer Alan Powles said they had reached the woman just in time before she succumbed to smoke.

He said: "Another five or ten minutes more and she would probably have been dead.

"There was very little fire damage, but the smoke was thick."

Firefighters administered first aid and oxygen at the scene.

The woman did not require hospital treatment.

Mr Powles said there was no smoke alarm fitted in the flat.

It is only two doors from the scene of a house fire in April, in which a 25-year-old woman and her two young sons lost their lives.

The brigade had specifically leafleted the neighbourhood, giving tips on fire safety and urged people to install smoke detectors following the fire tragedy.

Later yesterday, firemen fitted a smoke alarm in the flat.