Firefighters rescued a woman and her dog after she slept through a fire alarm when her kitchen caught fire.
Neighbours woken by the device called the emergency to the flat near the former Gala Bingo Hall in Richmond Road, Kingston, at 3.50am today.
Two fire crews found the two-room flat filled with smoke, but stopped the fire spreading any further and put it out by 4.20am.
They said the blaze started when some cooking caught alight.
The woman and her pet suffered some smoke inhalation, but were not seriously hurt.
A Kingston fire station spokesman said: “They had a smoke alarm but it did not wake the woman up, but it alerted her neighbours who called us.”
He said 60 per cent of domestic fires that are not related to smoking start in the kitchen, and the fire brigade can install free smoke alarms. See london-fire.gov.uk.
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