Men saved by alert neighbours as smoke alarm fails to wake them (From Watford Observer)

'Men slept through smoke alarm as flat filled with smoke'

4:00pm Friday 7th September 2012 in News By Mike Wright, Chief Reporter

Alert neighbours helped to avoid a potential tragedy in central Watford after cooking caught fire in a flat in the early hours of this morning.

Firefighters found two men fast asleep and oblivious to smoke filling their maisonette in Orwell Close after being called by neighbours who heard the alarm.

Watch commander Derek MacLeod, from Watford Fire Station, said his crew was called to the flats, near Radlett Road, at around 5.30am.

He said: "This was a case of cooking, then falling asleep and not responding to the smoke alarm.

"They were lying there oblivious while the flat was filling up with smoke. They probably would have carried on sleeping the whole way through and never woken up.

"They had taken in quite a bit of smoke, but thankfully their injuries were just smoke inhalation."

Firefighters extinguished a fire in a pan with oil in the kitchen.

The two men were treated by paramedics at the scene.