A WOMAN was rescued from a fire that broke out in her flat as she slept.

The woman, thought to be in her twenties, was in the bedroom of her top-floor flat, in a three-story converted terrace in St Paul’s Road, Islington, when flames erupted in the kitchen, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Firefighters raced to the scene after being called at around 2.15am and had to break down the door to get the woman out. A firefighter from Islington Fire Station’s green watch, which tackled the blaze, said: “A lady in the flat below told us there was someone upstairs. We went straight up and smashed the door in. There was lots of thick black smoke. We pulled someone out and rescued her. She was in bed sleeping. The flat did not have working fire alarms.”

He added: “Our fire investigation unit said if it had been another minute she would have been dead.”

A spokeswoman for the London Fire Brigade said: “We sent four fire engines to the scene. One woman was rescued by fire fighters wearing breathing apparatus.”

The woman suffered smoke inhalation and was rushed to the University College Hospital, in Euston, by the London Ambulance Service.

A spokeswoman for the LAS said: “We sent an ambulance crew and a duty officer to the scene. Our staff treated one woman in her 20s with smoke inhalation and took her as a priority to UCH.”

The blaze was under control by 3am. Its cause is under investigation.