A WINSFORD man has told of how he saved a street of terraced houses after acting quickly to a blaze in a neighbour’s house.


Ken Hassall, 54, acted fast when he saw flames coming from a neighbour’s house in Weaver Street.


He told his wife to call 999 and immediately smashed the back windows with a clothes lines prop and doused the 5ft-high flames with his hose pipe.


Ken said: “I said to my wife, ‘can you smell smoke?’ and then we saw smoke coming through the vent in the kitchen.


“I opened the back door and that’s when I saw the flames in the window of the house at the back, they were about 5ft high. I told my wife to call 999 and went straight to the shed to get the hose pipe. I put the windows through with the clothes prop and doused the flames through the window.


“The whole house was filled with smoke. I didn’t really think, I just did what I had to do.”


The house was in the middle of a row of terraced houses and Ken said he acted to help save more of his neighbours’ homes.


Ian Pugh, fire investigation officer at the scene, said: “Before we arrived a neighbour had accessed the room from the rear and used a hose pipe to put the fire out. Although this gentleman did a good job in attempting to put the fire out, we would always advise that people wait for the firefighters to arrive and never tackle a fire themselves.”


A 24-year-old woman from the Liverpool area was arrested in connection with the incident and she has been bailed pending further enquiries.