A PENSIONER died despite frantic efforts by neighbours to rescue him from his blazing flat.

Thomas Harbinson, 67, suffered 60 per cent burns at his first floor bedsit in Queens Road, Blackburn, last night.

The alarm was raised at 6pm by next door neighbour Dennis Atherton and his son Dave, who spotted smoke pouring from the window.

Dennis and his daughter Jackie's boyfriend, Accrington firefighter Ian Burdett, went into the building through the back door when they feared someone may be trapped.

Dennis said: "There was a little smoke on the landing. We opened the man's bedsit door slightly. We couldn't see anyone in the room, just flames and thick, black smoke. The smoke was too intense to enter so we threw buckets of water into the room. By this time the fire brigade had arrived."

He added: "The man's landlord had been worried about him these last few weeks and had tried to get him to go to hospital several times." Two Blackburn firefighters using breathing apparatus found him lying unconscious on a blazing settee.

Fire crews entered the flat through the door and carried the pensioner down a flight of stairs in the three-storey building. They gave Mr Harbinson oxygen until paramedics arrived.

He was taken by ambulance to Blackburn Infirmary but died in the intensive care unit. The fire is believed to have started on the settee.

Inspector Bob Eastwood, of Blackburn Police, said: "Mr Harbinson was seen for a separate medical matter by ambulance crews and a doctor shortly before the fire started."

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