A 69-YEAR-OLD man is in hospital with burns and suffering from smoke inhalation after being rescued from his burning home.

Fire crews were called to a flat at Deepdale House, in Deepdale Way, in the Red Hall area of Darlington, at 8.45pm on Saturday night.

The kitchen of the ground floor flat was described as being “well alight” and the man was rescued by fire fighters from the living room of the property.

He was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation before being transferred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle.

Nobody else was in the property at the time of the fire.

A nearby resident, who did not wish to be named, described the man as having “a heart of gold".

“He is a nice man. I saw the fire fighters go in and they dragged him out and took him to hospital,” he said.

A spokesman for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service said two appliances from Darlington arrived at the scene within six minutes of the alarm being raised.

He said fire fighters were not initially aware of anybody being trapped in the property until they found the man in the living room of the flat.

“They had him out in seconds. He was really fortunate that the crews got there so quickly,” he added.

A joint police and fire investigation into the cause of the blaze is due to begin tomorrow (Monday, July 26).