Sleeping residents living in a flat conversion in Cricklewood managed to escape with their lives after a smoke alarm alerted them to a fire in their building.

They were woken by the alarm after a blaze had broken out in a second-floor flat of the three-storey house in Dean Road, just after 2am last Thursday.

The fire damaged part of the lounge.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: “We recommend having a working smoke alarm on each level of your home and testing it regularly.

“Smoke alarms save lives as they give you an early warning and buy you precious seconds to escape if a fire does break out.”

The fire is believed to have been accidental.