Firefighters saved an unconscious woman from a burning flat in a dramatic rescue.

Epsom and Leatherhead crews were called to a second floor flat engulfed in flames at Highfields, in Ashtead with a woman, believed to be in her 70s, trapped inside.

Robin Wilson, watch manager from Epsom Fire Station said: “When we got there the residents were out pointing to the second floor where the flat was alight and they told me there was someone in there.

“A crew of two people wearing breathing apparatus with a hose wheel smashed down the door and started a search. They found an elderly lady unconscious in the bedroom.”

Fire fighters Dan Bolton and Chris Nassim took the woman outside where she was given oxygen and regained consciousness.

Officer Wilson said: “We called an ambulance and by the time they got here she was breathing and conscious. Another couple of minutes in the smoke and she would not have survived.”

The lady was taken to Epsom Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

According to the officers the fire on Thursday is likely to have started in the kitchen of her flat at about 2.30pm and somehow she managed to lock herself inside.

Other residents were also treated and released at the scene for smoke inhalation.

Four pumps - two from Epsom Fire Station and two from Leatherhead - attended the fire.

The blaze is not considered suspicious.

• Do you know more? Let us know by email here, phone the newsdesk on 020 8330 9555 or leave a comment below.