A YOUNG Evesham man who fell asleep while smoking a cigarette woke up to find flames roaring around him in his flat.

He became trapped in the first floor flat in Maycroft in Hampton after his lit cigarette set fire to the sofa.

The noise of the fire was believed to have woken him and he managed to escape through his front door and run around to Martin Avenue where he called the fire service from a telephone box last Thursday.

Nearby residents who were concerned that the man was still trapped inside the flat also made repeated calls to the fire service while they were on their way to the incident.

Residents in the three other flats in the block evacuated their homes and two fire engines from Evesham spent an hour at the scene making the flat safe.

The tenant, who moved to the flat from Worcester four years ago, received no serious injuries but was treated for shock by paramedics from the ambulance service's rapid response team at the scene.

Substantial damage was caused to the entire flat and the young man, who lived on his own, has now been temporarily housed elsewhere.

Although smoke filled the block of flats on the corner of Maycroft and Maryman's Avenue, no other flats were damaged.

A resident in Maryman's Avenue told the Journal: "When he moved here he was helped a lot with furniture and things like that. I tried to help him as much as I could by putting curtains up and things like that to see if he could make a go of it, and now this has happened."

Leading firefighter John Wood said: "If you fall asleep while you're smoking these things are going to happen, you'll drop the cigarette and there will be a fire. More care should be taken because if a cigarette gets lodged down the side of a chair it can have disastrous consequences."