A MAN had a lucky escape after his bed caught fire as he slept off a drinking binge.
A neighbour alerted the fire brigade at about 3.10am on Saturday when he saw smoke coming from a house in High Street West, Coatham, Redcar.
Firefighters arrived to find the bed alight and the occupier sound asleep.
Station officer Peter Young said: "It was a young man who had been out drinking. He had left a cigarette on the bed earlier in the day and it had caught fire. He had put the fire out, then fallen asleep, and it had flared up again. The man was very lucky, as he had drunk so much that we had trouble waking him."
He added: "People should be very careful when smoking."
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