A man who fell asleep on his sofa had a lucky escape after neighbours noticed a fire in his kitchen.

Firefighters were called to the blaze in St Faith’s Road, Lambeth, at 1.07am today after neighbours smelled burning.

The house itself did not have a smoke detector fitted.

A West Norwood fire station spokesman said: “He was on the sofa. We woke him up and gave him a smoke alarm.

“It was burned food. If it wasn’t for the neighbour...you don’t know.”

There were no injuries, and firefighters spent about an hour at the scene.