A WOMAN today praised a neighbour who rescued her from a fire which threatened to burn down her house in Blackburn.

Christine Hudson, 55, accidentally set her wardrobe on fire with a faulty cigarette lighter at about 3.45pm on Wednesday.

The catering assistant at the new Royal Blackburn Hospital could not call the fire service for help as her mobile phone was damaged in the blaze, at her house in Lytham Road, Blackburn.

She began to scream for help as the clothes in the wardrobe burned, and next-door neighbour Andy MacGregor, 40, rushed to the house to help.

He poured gallons of water on to the fire and put the flames out.

Today Christine, who suffered burns to her hands in the incident, thanked Andy and said her house could have burned down.

She said: "The firemen said what must have happened was that the lighter hadn't gone out when I put it back in the canvas wardrobe.

"I had nothing upstairs to put the fire out and the phone was on the floor next to the fire.

"I started screaming for Andy. He came and thank God he did.

"He got the basin from the sink and chucked about ten litres of water over it. Thank God he was there. It's a good job he came in.

"I said to him afterwards, I can't thank you enough'. I've only just paid for the house.

"I was so frightened, I just panicked and I didn't know what to do.

"It was a good job he had his wits about him. I would have had no house.

"But for him the bedroom would have gone and the roof would have gone, I can't thank him enough."

Most of the clothes which were destroyed in the fire had been bought by Christine ready for a holiday in Spain in October.

Luckily the damage was limited to her wardrobe, and firefighters who attended the scene later on helped her to remove the damaged items and fitted a new smoke alarm.

Today father-of-three Andy said he would have done the same thing for anyone.

The full-time dad said: "I was in the back fitting a new exhaust on the car when I heard her screaming and I thought, What the hell was that?'

"I looked up and I could see smoke coming out of her bedroom.

"I saved her house from getting burnt down and I suppose I saved her life, but I didn't think anything of it."