FIREFIGHTERS put out a kitchen blaze in Bury after an elderly lady left a cloth boiling.

Crews were called to Somerset Drive at 1.52pm on Saturday by worried neighbours who feared the woman in her seventies was trapped in the house.

A neighbour had heard a fire alarm going off and discovered the house was full of smoke.

The woman, who lives alone, had been boiling a cloth in a pan on the hob but had forgotten about it and gone out. The pan had boiled dry and the cloth ended up on fire. Firefighters put out the blaze in the pan and used a fan to get rid of the smoke, so there was only minimal damage done to the property. The woman returned after about 15 minutes.

Bury Fire Station watch manager Steve Wilcock said: “A smoke alarm which had recently been fitted by the fire service alerted the neighbours to this fire.

“These smoke alarms are doing a brilliant job and we would encourage everyone to have one – they are free from the fire service.

“While we are there we fitted a brand new smoke alarm upstairs. This really was a near miss.”