FIVE members of a family were pulled to safety from their burning home by a heroic neighbour.

Matt Marsden sprang into action after hearing screams as the flames tore through the building.

He dashed across the road and fixed a ladder up to a first floor window, rescuing two of the children before the fire service arrived on the scene.

Smoke flooded the home in Clegg Street,  Haslingden, in the early hours of yesterday morning after an electrical fault in a fridge sparked the blaze on the ground floor.

Flames soon ripped through the property badly damaging the kitchen and sitting room with thick black smoke also causing serious damage upstairs.

The family had been trapped in a first floor room after their escape route was blocked by flames.

Dad Asrab Uddin, 38, said that Matt’s actions saved their lives as they had begun to feel the effects of the smoke.

He said: “He was a life saver as we feared for our lives.

“He came just in time and if he had not done what he did things could have been much worse.”

Asrab said the blaze had caused £60,000 worth of damage and it could be three months before they can use that part of the house again.

The emergency services were called to the scene at 1.20am and battled the blaze for three hours before the flames were brought under control.

After being rescued the family was taken to Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and were treated for smoke inhalation before being released.

Matt, 27, who lives opposite the house, said: “I just did what I needed to do and I was running on adrenalin.

“I woke up when I heard screaming coming from outside and someone knocked on my door and asked if I had a ladder.

“My stepson Bailey ran outside to grab one and I put it against the house under the upstairs window.

“I managed to carry down two of the children before the fire service came and I helped them bring the others down.

“I did what anyone else would have done and I’m glad that they are alright.”

Asrab, along with his wife Alaha and their four children, Halsah, 16, Hamza, 12, Hansnad, 5, and Hansa, 4, will now stay in the house next door which is connected to their charred home.

Watch manager Shaun Naughton, of Rawtenstall Fire Station, said: “He was certainly heroic and if he had not acted then things would have been a lot worse for the family.

“The damage to the property was extensive and we were at the scene for about three hours trying to control the fire.

“The residents were notified of the fire by the fire alarms that we had previously fitted at the address.

“The house has been connected with the one next door and the exit out had been blocked by a shoe rack so the family could not get out that way.

“Their only means of escape was the window as they would have had to go past the fire to get to the street.

“I would like to remind people that fire exits must not be blocked and that when internal alterations are made they must be done with the proper building regulations.”