A double glazing engineer had a lucky escape after a fire broke out at his North Tyneside home as he lay asleep in bed.

Terry Carter was woken by the fire alarm to find thick black smoke billowing through his first-floor flat in Park Lane, Shiremoor, early yesterday morning.

He discovered a storage heater and a cupboard in the spare room on fire and using pans of water, managed to put out the flames.

Firefighters were quickly on the scene and Mr Carter, 36, survived his ordeal unhurt although he was given oxygen as a precaution.

As he launched a clean-up operation, he said: "A friend had stopped over in the spare room the night before. There is a storage heater in the room with a cupboard in front.

"I never put the heating on in that room. It takes 24 hours for the heater to heat up, but my friend did not realise that and flicked on the switch because he decided he was a bit cold. There was a piece of silk material next to it and when the heater eventually heated up, it must have caught fire. I was in bed asleep and heard the fire alarm which is connected to the alarm in the shop below, which in turn is connected to the fire station.

"I went out of my bedroom and it was all smoked up. I could see flames coming from the spare room. There was so much thick smoke I could hardly see in front of me.

"I put the fire out myself with pans of water. The flames were really high and I just kept chucking water on - although the fire officers said I should have immediately left the flat instead. They said I was lucky not to have been hurt.

"I wasn't scared, but afterwards I was a bit in shock. Fortunately the fire was contained within the room."