FIREFIGHTERS pulled a pensioner from a blaze in her bungalow only weeks after they had fitted her smoke alarm.

Fire chiefs said the rescue early yesterday demonstrated the importance of fire alarms in preventing tragedies.

Darlington and County Durham Fire and Rescue fire service manager Ian Dockerty said the alarm was raised at a bungalow in Clough Dene, Tantobie, near Stanley, at 1.20am.

He said: “When it was confirmed that a person was trapped in the premises, two appliances were sent from High Handenhold and another from Consett.

“They arrived on the scene within ten minutes to find the property full of smoke. They could hear the smoke alarm had gone of.

“Two firefighters with breathing apparatus entered the house and doused a fire in the ceiling before they quickly located an elderly lady who was trapped in her bedroom.

“They entered her room but could not bring her out the way they had come in because there was too much smoke.

“Other crew members then broke down a door leading from the outside of the bungalow to her bedroom and she was taken to safety.”

The woman, in her eighties, was admitted to the University Hospital of North Durham, where she was treated for smoke inhalation.

Mr Dockerty said: “This is an example of how our smoke alarms have helped save a life.

If it had not been for the alarm, we may have been dealing with a tragedy.”

The fire is believed to have started when a wire fuse box caught fire.

Mr Dockerty said the alarm was one of 300 fitted by firefighters in the area.

Mr Dockerty launched a campaign to reduce the risk of fatal house fires following the death of George Bewick, 79, in Tantobie in 2008.