A NEIGHBOUR who braved choking smoke to rescue a 17-month-old baby was last night praised by her mother.

Father-of-two Spencer Carter woke to the sound of breaking windows and smelled smoke after a wheelie bin fire -thought to have been started deliberately -spread to the house where five people were sleeping.

He reached the smoke-filled home and, hearing baby Courtney Iley crying, rushed inside and brought her out.

Last night, her mother, Christine Dunn, said: "I am really grateful. If it wasn't for him, who knows what would have happened."

The 32-year-old sales manager said he woke at 5am yesterday to smell smoke from the house three doors away in Surrey Terrace, Billingham, near Stockton.

As his girlfriend, Dawn Eley, 30, called the fire brigade, he was met by Ms Dunn's son, Mark, 17, and friend Daniel Arnold, also 17, who both managed to get out.

He said: "They came running from the back of the house, saying 'the baby's in there, the baby's in there'.

"I could hear the baby crying, so I just did what anyone would have done really.

"I pulled my jumper over my head and went in.

"The smoke was pretty thick, but I was able to find my way round because the layout is the same as my house."

He found the bedroom containing Courtney Iley, Ms Dunn and her mother, Annette Lamb.

The pair had closed the door, keeping the worst of the smoke at bay. Mr Carter said: "I told them I had to take the baby. She was wrapped in a duvet, so I picked her up and went back through the house.

"I knew the two women in the bedroom would be okay until the fire brigade got there, because they had managed to keep the smoke out."

Mr Carter was given oxygen when firefighters arrived, and Ms Dunn and Mrs Lamb were taken by ambulance to the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, where they were treated for smoke inhalation.

Speaking from a relative's home in Peterlee, County Durham, Ms Dunn said: "We do not know what we are going to do now. The family has just been split up all over the place.

"But we have been really lucky and I am so thankful to Spencer."

A police spokesman said that shortly before the incident, the fire brigade dealt with a wheelie bin fire in nearby Essex Crescent.

The incident is being treated as arson, and officers would like to talk to witnesses, particularly a man seen dressed in black, wearing a black beanie-style hat and riding a BMX.

Anyone with information is asked to call (01642) 302226.