AN ELDERLY man's life was put in jeopardy in a York flat blaze - because the batteries from his smoke detector had been removed.

The man had to be carried from his burning flat by 999 crews alerted by neighbours whose own homes became filled with smoke.

The man, believed to be around 70, was today recovering from his ordeal in York Hospital.

The incident began with a fire in the kitchen of the man's home in Lowther Street, The Groves, about 9.45pm last night.

The man was alone in the ground floor flat.

The neighbours who lived above the flat were alerted to trouble when they found smoke rising through the floor and filling their flat.

They swiftly called firefighters, who arrived to find the downstairs flat filled with the smoke, before finding the blaze in the kitchen.

Two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the flat to tackle the fire.

"At that point we realised there was actually somebody inside the flat, so those two firefighters were assigned to finding him," said Station officer Phil Whild.

"They found him swiftly, and rescued him through the back door by carrying him out," he said.

The man was suffering from the effects of breathing in smoke and was taken to the nearby hospital.

Officer Whild said: "A smoke detector was fitted at the flat, but the batteries had been removed.

"If the batteries had been in place, then this gentleman would have been alerted to the fire and would have been able to make his own way from the building, rather than having to be carried by these officers.

"It might also have meant an elderly man not suffering the dangers of smoke inhalation.

"Every home should have a smoke detector fitted, and incidents like this really push home the importance of both having them, and keeping them in good working order."

A spokeswoman for York Hospital said the man was in a fairly stable condition and it was hoped he would be able to leave hospital today.

Updated: 10:45 Tuesday, August 17, 2004