A man and his pet gerbil, Smokey, were rescued from their smoke-logged home.

Fire crews attended reports of a heavily smoke-filled property on Woodbourne Square soon after 11.30am today (Friday).

Wearing breathing apparatuses, they helped the man out of the building before he was treated by paramedics at the scene. They returned to save his pet.

It was the flat’s internal smoke detector that had raised the alarm.

A fire and rescue spokesman said: ’Smokey has been unfortunate enough to live up to his name! His owner left the cooker hob on this morning and woke to a smoke filled flat.

’The fire was contained to the cooker but the building heavily smoke logged.

’Smokey appeared fine and none the worse after his ordeal.

’Working smoke detectors save lives and help to limit damage by allowing small fires to be extinguished early. Please check you have a working smoke alarm fitted in your house to protect both your families and pets.’