An unemployed painter and decorator had a lucky escape when neighbours knocked on his window telling him his house was on fire.

The 29-year-old man, who did not want to be identified, was asleep at his home in Caledonian Road, Brighton, at 11.45am yesterday when the fire broke out in the base-ment.

The man, who lives in the rented house, was not woken by the sound of the alarm or by smoke which was billowing out of the house.

It was only when neighbours saw the smoke and alerted him that he made his escape.

The man, who was in a state of shock with singed hair and eyebrows, said: "I was asleep at the time and I was definitely very lucky to get out. If they hadn't woken me up I would probably would have died."

His neighbours, one man and one woman, played down their role in the incident.

The woman, who also asked not to be named, said: "We just saw smoke and stuff coming out of the house so we made sure people were up. We just did our good citizen stuff and phoned the fire brigade. The alarm was going off, but he wasn't aware of it. They're all okay and that's the main thing at the end of the day."

Gary Pearson, assistant divisional officer based at Brighton, said: "The neighbours did a good job of raising the alarm and warning the occupant what was going on.

"This shows the value of smoke alarms. In this instance I suspect, although it didn't wake him up, it alerted neighbours and passers by to the problem. If he didn't have a working fire alarm fitted this might have been a different story."

l Firefighters were called to the rear of a house in Old Church Road, St Leonards, where rubbish and wooden pallets had been set alight yesterday.

The fire spread to a row of pine trees.

The blaze was quickly brought under control and no homes had to be evacuated.