A WOMAN is 'very lucky' to have escaped a fire at her flat which was caused by an unattended pan.

The smoke alarm alerted the woman to the fire in her basement kitchen and she called the fire brigade and got herself out of the building.

She had been cooking with oil, watch manager Marc Murphy said, and had been distracted allowing the fire to start.

Mr Murphy said: "It was a pan of food left on a cooker hob which had been left unattended.

"We had to cut away some floorboards because it was in a terraced house which had been converted into flats, the kitchen was in the basement and it had spread to the ceiling which was the underside of another floor. It was more involved than we first thought.

"The occupant was very, very lucky."

The fire service was called to the flat in Danby Road, Great Lever at about 12.30am today and was at the scene for around an hour.

There was one other occupant in the converted house at the time and firefighters checked to make sure he had not been affected.

Once the fire was out, the firefighters from Bolton station, use ventilation fans to clear the flat of smoke as it had been 'heavily smoke logged' said Mr Murphy.

He added the incident should serve as a warning to people to keep an eye on their cooking at all times and of the importance of smoke detectors.

The woman had managed to get herself out without any injury to herself and Mr Murphy reminded the public smoke detectors can be obtained free of charge from the fire service.