A family had a lucky escape today when smoke alarms alerted them to a fire in their kitchen.

The blaze broke out in a ground-floor flat in Padbury Drive, Banbury during the early hours, but the family was alerted by the alarms and escaped before the blaze became too severe.

Firefighters from Deddington and Banbury attended the scene at 4.30am.

They used breathing apparatus to enter the flat and put out the blaze.

One person was treated at the scene for the effects of breathing in smoke.

Incident Commander Simon Piper, from Banbury fire station, said: “The family had a lucky escape due to having working smoke alarms in the flat.

“This is a good example of the importance of working smoke alarms.

"If this had not been the case and the smoke alarms had not been working, the fire would have been much more serious and this incident could have resulted in a far different situation for the family.

“We recommend that all house and flats have at least one working smoke alarm on each floor and they are checked weekly.”