A SMOKE alarm has saved the lives of a North-East family.

"They were very, very lucky," said Steve McCarten, Fire Station Officer at Middlesbrough.

"If the fire had gone another five minutes, I would have feared the worst."

The alarm woke 37-year-old Neil Craster, who grabbed two-year-old son Neil in his arms and safely shepherded Courtney, aged seven, 13-year-old Johnny Walker and his 17-year-old sister Vicky out of the house.

The detector had been fitted only recently by firefighters making a routine home check, part of a systematic sweep of the area, initiated by Cleveland Fire Brigade in an effort to reduce the number of house fires.

The blaze started in Mr Craster's bedroom in the house in Middlesbrough's Sulby Avenue, on the Pallister Park estate and was caused by "accidental ignition".

Mr McCarten said: "They were woken by the activating of the smoke alarm, which had only been fitted as a result of a home fire safety check. Without doubt the smoke detector saved their lives.''

There was severe damage to the main bedroom and moderate smoke damage to the first floor of the house, following yesterday's blaze.

Visibly upset by his experience, Mr Craster said: "I think I went to sleep with my cigarette end still lit. Just so long as the kids are all right, I don't want to talk about it.''

There were 172 casualties and 1,377 house fires in Middlesbrough alone, in the past five years.

The brigade forecasts it will take staff four years to visit all 230,719 homes in the Teesside conurbation, in their home fire safety check programme.

They advise on fire safety, escape routes and smoke detectors.

In an earlier interview with The Northern Echo, Dave Turton, brigade community fire safety development manager, said: "If we don't do this, we don't think we are going to further reduce the fire risk.''

He said it was a sad fact of life that the majority of deaths and injuries from fire occur in the home and are preventable.

Free home fire safety checks are already available and Teessiders are being encouraged to contact the brigade and make a visit appointment.

More than 400 people are killed and 12,500 people injured in house fires each year in the UK, and on average, 270 of those killed in fires did not have a smoke alarm.