FOR the second time in only four days, a woman has been rescued from her terraced home by firefighters.

Last night, 21-year-old Lyndsey Alderson spoke of her embarrassment at having to be saved twice from her home in Portland Avenue, Deneside, Seaham, County Durham.

Ms Alderson, whose two-year-old daughter, Bethany, was staying with her grandmother at the time of both incidents, described how the double drama began last Sunday night.

She and her 28-year-old partner, Michael, had gone to bed at about 11pm and were woken by the sound of the downstairs smoke alarm going off.

When she went to investigate, she was confronted by a wall of dense black smoke and dialled 999. Firefighters from Seaham and Peterlee arrived and helped the couple to safety.

"It turns out I had stupidly left the chip pan on,'' she said.

But four days later, with the kitchen windows still boarded up from the first incident, Ms Alderson was in the house alone and had gone to bed at about 11.30pm.

Half an hour later, while she was sleeping, a neighbour noticed smoke pouring from the house and, after summoning the fire service, got into the property.

The neighbour reached the by-now unconscious Ms Alderson in her bedroom.

When the brigade arrived at the house moments later, they saw a face at the upstairs window and placed a ladder on the outside of the house.

The neighbour, who does not wish to be named, clambered down the ladder and officers wearing breathing equipment got into the bedroom and brought Ms Alderson down to the garden on a stretcher.

"The first thing I knew after going to bed was being given oxygen in the front garden,'' she said.

After receiving first aid at the scene, she was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and returned home after treatment.

"I feel really stupid that I had to be rescued twice and I'm only pleased Bethany wasn't here on either occasion,'' she said.

Clearing up the mess yesterday, Ms Alderson pledged to be more vigilant and vowed she would not be doing any more late-night cooking.

She said of the fire service: "Without them it could have been much worse and I would like to thank them for rescuing me both times.''

Investigations at the scene of the fire in the stairway have yet to establish the cause.