A MAN has told how he escaped from his burning bungalow after smoke alarms alerted him to a kitchen blaze.Darren Cooper, 37, had started cooking food on the stove at his home in Jaywick when he fell asleep.

By Annie Davidson

A MAN has told how he escaped from his burning bungalow after smoke alarms alerted him to a kitchen blaze.

Darren Cooper, 37, had started cooking food on the stove at his home in Jaywick when he fell asleep.

An hour later he was woken by the smoke alarms sounding and found the kitchen ablaze.

Mr Cooper tried to put out the flames himself before fleeing his Swift Avenue home and calling the fire brigade.

Crews from Clacton went to the scene at 7.10pm on Saturday and firefighters wearing breathing apparatuses extinguished the fire.

Leading firefighter Kieran Warner said: “The important thing is that the reason he got out and was safe was because he did have a smoke detector fitted.

“It sounded an alarm which woke him up and he was up and out of the building when we got there.

“It shows the importance of smoke alarms.”

Mr Cooper, who has lived at the property for 18 months, said: “I am very pleased to have the smoke alarm and if I hadn't had one it might have been a different story.”