LINSLADE pensioner Dorothy Sullivan has heaped praise on her neighbours and the emergency services after they came to her rescue during a house fire on Saturday night.

The 88-year-old woman was attempting to tackle the chip pan blaze single-handed when her next-door neighbour, John Trotman, carried her out of the pitch-black, smoke-filled house in New Road.

Yesterday morning the pensioner burst into tears as she surveyed the remains of the blackened kitchen. "It's just sinking in," she said. "I didn't realise how bad it was. I'd urge anyone with a chip pan to throw it away."

The fire broke out as her daughter, Lesley Fulker, who lives with her, celebrated her 60th birthday at London's Dorchester Hotel with her daughter Holly and her husband.

Mrs Sullivan had cooked egg and chips for her tea in the small galley kitchen at the front of the house before settling down to watch TV in her own lounge in an annexe at the back of the terraced property. Minutes later the lights went out.

"I went to look at the fuse box and saw the flames. I tried to cover it with damp cloths but it seemed to make the smoke worse.
"Then John came in but I didn't want to leave the blaze. In the end he carried me out.

"They'll be no more chips pans here in future. It was so easily done. I thought I'd turned the cooker off but I couldn't have done.
"I'm just so grateful to everyone. All the emergency services got here quickly and were wonderful and our neighbours have been so good to us."
Mrs Fulker, who works in the Aga Centre, Friday Street, also wanted to thank her neighbours.

"John was a real hero. Mum was trying to put out the flames and he just picked her up and carried her out. Thank goodness she had opened the double-glazed front door to call for help otherwise no-one would have been able to get into the property.

"You can replace a kitchen but you can't replace your mum. She was so very lucky.

"All the neighbours have been absolutely brilliant. Jan and Mark, next door, have taken us in and other neighbours have been cooking us meals. We can't thank them enough.

"We were in London when we got a call about the fire. I contacted my son, David, who lives at the house but who was out with friends, and he raced back to make sure mum was all right. What a way to celebrate my birthday!"

Mr Trotman, who together with his wife Sue, also cared for the pensioner, said: "I saw smoke drifting past our window and when I looked out the kitchen was well ablaze.

"I wasn't a hero. I just went in and got her out. She thought she could deal with it but by then there was thick smoke.

"The smoke alarm was activated but I don't think she could hear it. It was the lights going out that alerted her to the fire."

A spokesman for Leighton Fire and Rescue praised the family for fitting a smoke alarm.

"There's no doubt it helped raise the alarm," he said.
Mrs Sullivan was treated for smoke inhalation and shock but she wasn't taken to hospital.