TWO men were hailed as heroes today after dragging an unconscious 82-year-old woman to safety from her blazing home.

Sadie King was lying face down in her living room when David Dillon and Adrian Dutton, both 21, pulled her clear of the fire.

Mrs King's house in Anchor Avenue, Darwen, caught fire when a pan was left on her hob. She was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary, but later moved to the Wirral Hospital because of its facilities to treat carbon monoxide poisoning where her condition was believed to be serious.

Mrs King's daughter, Margaret Howard, said: "We are keeping our fingers crossed. We cannot thank the lads enough for rescuing her. "

And the men were praised for their actions by fire chiefs.

David, of Hector Road, Darwen, was coming back from Blackburn at around 3pm when he saw some people around Mrs King's house.

He said: "My mate went around the back and I kicked the door open, ran in and tried to assess the situation -- whether it was going to blow up.

"I am a martial arts instructor and have done a course in first aid.

"I started shouting to get some attention because I knew someone was in the house.

"I thought there maybe a child in there. I stayed low down in case the fire came out.

"It was in the kitchen, luckily the window had gone through and the gases had gone out.

I ran into the front room. I didn't think twice about it. I knew someone was in, I didn't think for myself.

"I bumped into the lady on the floor in the living room. She was unconscious, she had collapsed from smoke and look like she had hit her head. She had soot up her nose.

"I did not need to give her mouth to mouth because she was breathing, so I put her in the recovery position. The ambulance arrived after ten minutes and the Paramedics took over."

Adrian, of Anchor Avenue, Darwen, saw the fire from his bedroom window across the road. "I went over and then round the back and started kicking the side door and hitting it with a garden gnome, but I could not open it.

"That was where the fire was so we were paranoid about it blowing up. So I went around to the front to help David."

A spokesman for the fire service said: "They did a grand job to get her out."

It took a couple of minutes to put the fire out, and the kitchen is completely ruined, but the smoke will have damaged other areas of the house.

"We are currently offering home fire safety visits which could have prevented this from ever happening. The public can ring Darwen fire station and arrange us to come and make sure they have fire protection."

Darwen fire station can be contacted on 01254 702288. The service is available across the county and people can contact their local fire station for details.