A YORK man was lucky to be alive today after his bedroom was engulfed with smoke while he slept.

Brian Metcalfe, 59, of Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall, was woken just before 7am today by his smoke alarm after his electric blanket caught fire.

Sub Officer Carl Vinand, of York Fire Station, said that if a smoke alarm had not been fitted then Mr Metcalfe would have been killed, and he also warned against leaving electric blankets on overnight.

Mr Metcalfe, a maintenance electrician at Monk Hill Confectionery, in Poppleton, said he intended to leave the blanket on for just a few minutes, but fell asleep. His dog, Benson, who was also in the bedroom, escaped unhurt.

Today, Mr Metcalfe said: "I feel very lucky. I was fast asleep and then I remember choking and the alarm going off.

"The room was filled with smoke, my eyes were watering. I leapt out of bed and tried to open the windows, but the fumes fought me back out of the bedroom.

"I came downstairs and got a bucket of water and put on a dust mask, and I threw water on it until I thought I had got it out and then called the fire brigade and they finished the job.

"I was dizzy and I don't think I was far from collapse."

Mr Metcalfe's bed was fire damaged and the upstairs of his house was smoke damaged.

Updated: 10:12 Monday, May 05, 2003