FIRE crews rescued an injured east Durham man from his blazing home in the early hours of Monday.

The semi-detached house, in Fairbairn Road, Peterlee, was well alight when two appliances from Peterlee fire station and one from Seaham arrived just after 1am.

Fire officers arrived to find a man calling for help from an upstairs window.

And while fire crews wearing breathing apparatus went in through the front door, ladders were positioned up to the man who was brought to safety.

He was taken to the University Hospital of Hartlepool where he was treated for lacerations he received trying to escape and smoke inhalation.

Once inside the badly damaged house, fire officers found two dogs in a back room.

They were taken to safety outside and quickly recovered.

A few hours earlier, firefighters were called to a fire in the stairwell of a block of three flats, in Westmoreland Rise, Peterlee.

Officers led a man and woman to safety from the smoke-filled building.

It was later confirmed that the fire had been started deliberately.