A MILKMAN dashed to the rescue of a 78-year-old woman whose house was ablaze in the early hours of yesterday.

Dennis Hinchliffe was starting his round in Barnard Castle, County Durham, at about 3am when he smelled burning and noticed flames leaping out of a house on Galgate.

He hammered on the door of the cottage, where pensioner Jean Tallentire was inside.

The 65-year-old then helped Miss Tallentire, who was alone in the house, out into the street.

"I know the old girl very well," said Mr Hinchcliffe, who was yesterday going about his rounds as usual.

"I shouted, 'Are you there?' She replied, 'I'm here', and I just pulled her out. She was up and dressed, but she had fallen asleep in front of the fire, which somehow had spread."

And he added: "She was wanting to show the fire brigade where the kitchen was so they could get some water. I told her they had brought their own."

Neighbour Lawrie Swires, said: "It was the smoke that actually woke us up at about 4am. We had a front window open and it was coming through. We woke up and had a look outside and saw the house on fire and the appliances dealing with it. Flames were leaping out of the roof."

Miss Tallentire was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.

Mr Tallentire's brother, local councillor John Hinchcliffe, said: "Dennis does a double delivery on a Wednesday, and doesn't do one at all on a Thursday, so if it was a day before he wouldn't have been there to help.

"He's an early riser and it was very lucky he was there at the time."

Steve Donnelly, district manager for the fire brigade, said: "The fire has left the premises very unstable, so we haven't been able to fully investigate the cause of the fire, but it is looking like an accident.

"We will fit smoke detectors free of charge and I would encourage everybody to take us up on this by calling 0191-3324-222."

The house was badly damaged by the fire, which also spread to a neighbouring, unoccupied property. Fire crew were at the house well into Friday afternoon and used breathing equipment, five fire engines and an aerial platform to tackle the blaze.

It is the second fire at the property in the past five years.