A 46-YEAR-OLD man suffered serious second-degree burns and smoke inhalation in a fire at his home, near Stokesley.

Neighbours managed to rescue the man from the burning ground-floor room at his terraced house in Great Ayton, yesterday evening.

He was taken to Middlesbrough Hospital, but later transferred to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield due to the severity of his burns. His condition today was said to "critical but stable".

Updated: 11:43 Wednesday, November 20, 2002