A MAN had a lucky escape today when police were alerted to a fire at his North Yorkshire home by a burglar alarm triggered by the heat.
Officers attended the detached property at 1.45am at The Barrows in Markington, near Ripon, and found the man asleep upstairs while the fire burned on the ground floor. They led him to safety and he escaped, suffering only with minor smoke inhalation.
A spokesman for the fire service said the police were inadvertently called when the fire's heat melted a wire in the house which triggered the burglar alarm. The blaze was caused by candles left unattended.
The spokesman said: "Had the man not had a burglar alarm the fire would have raged through his house before he had a chance to do anything.
"He did not have a smoke alarm." Four firefighters used breathing apparatus and one hose reel to extinguish the blaze.
Updated: 13:57 Monday, July 14, 2003
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