A NEIGHBOUR risked his own life to save a 91-year-old man from his burning house after seeing plumes of smoke.

But Vernon Barratt shrugged off his brave rescue of the pensioner, saying;: "I did just what anyone would normally do".

The bedroom of the terraced home in Barnes Street, Clayton-le-Moors, caught fire at about 3pm on Tuesday.

Vernon Barratt, 58, who lives next door with his nephew, decided there was no time to wait for the firefighters.

Vernon, originally from North Wales, said: "Me and two younger blokes decided to try and get in, so we started kicking the door down, but we were getting nowhere.

"I decided to go round the back and see if I could get in that way, and I found that the back door was left open.

"When I got in I could see a leg dangling through the ceiling and load of burning carpet falling to the floor. The house was beginning to fill up with thick, black smoke, so I put my coat over my head, and crawled around on my hands and knees, feeling my way around."

Vernon saw the man unconscious in his bedroom.

He said: "I grabbed him by the arms and heaved him up.

"I started to bang on his chest and was about to give him the kiss of life when the two blokes who were helping me kick the door down appeared and we took him downstairs.

"I did just what anyone would normally do."

Three fire crews from Hyndburn attended the incident and gave Mr Barratt and the occupant of the house oxygen.

The injured man was then taken to the Royal Blackburn Hospital and is believed to have third-degree burns to his arms and legs.

It is believed that the fire was caused by an electrical fault, firefighters said.