Six people saved from '˜severe' flat fire

Three fire engines from Preston and Penwortham were called to Rutland Street at around 1.15am today after it was reported that people were trapped in a ‘severe’ fire affecting three first-floor flats.

On arrival, firefighters discovered residents had already rescued a mother and child from the fire, which had spread through the hallway and staircase and affected both the gas and electric feeds to the flat.

Electricity North West was called to disconnect the power for safety reasons, which left more than 200 nearby properties without electricity on Sunday morning.

A further four people were rescued by the fire service using a 10.5m ladder.

The fire was extinguished using two hosereels and four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus searched the property for further casualties, though none were found.

The mother and child were taken to Royal Preston Hospital by paramedics, where they were treated for the smoke inhalation.

An Electricity North West spokesman said: “Our engineers were called to attend Rutland Street this morning due to a property fire.

“In order to disconnect the property from the network we unfortunately had to take off surrounding properties.

“Just over 200 properties were affected. The supply has now been restored to all customers.

“We would like to apologise for the inconvenience.”