A PENSIONER was lucky to escape serious injury after a gas explosion rocked his Malton flat.

Fire ripped through the first floor building, in Chandlers Wharf, after a butane gas canister exploded on Saturday morning.

A North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service spokeswoman said the explosion had happened when the pensioner, a man said to be aged between 70 and 80, was smoking a cigarette while trying to fill the canister.

He was rescued from his hallway and taken to York Hospital suffering from slight burns, singed hair and the effects of smoke inhalation.

The accident happened at about 10.04am. The fire service spokeswoman said that two engines from Malton attended the scene. Four firefighters entered the flat wearing breathing apparatus.

She said: "The fire caused severe fire damage to the living room, to a settee and to a small part of the carpet.

"There was damage to the windows and to two other rooms in the flat."

No one was answering at the flat this morning.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "I think the man seemed to be all right.

"The fire brigade brought him out and his eyes were open."

Updated: 11:43 Monday, March 10, 2003