TWO people had to be rescued by fire crews after a house blaze in Kilbirnie last week.

Fire teams from Dalry, Beith and Kilbirnie mobilised after an alert about people trapped inside the property in Sunderland Court.

Station Manager Derek Davidson told the Herald: “This was a fire in a mid terrace single storey property which cause significant damage to the the living room area. The Incident Commander requested an increase in resources to provide sufficient personnel to tackle the blaze and search for the persons reported within the building.

“Initially an adult female was removed from the property suffering from slight smoke inhalation.

“She advised the crews that an adult male remained inside the premises at that time.

“As a result a total of six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and carrying high pressure hose reel jets carried out a systematic search of the house until the remaining casualty was located and removed from a bedroom to a place of safety.” “Initially his injuries were thought to be serious but after assessment by our colleagues at the Scottish Ambulance Service this was downgraded to slight smoke inhalation.” Watch manager Fred Williams, the incident commander, said: “Our firefighters used two high pressure jets to bring the flames under control and their efforts successfully prevented the fire from spreading to adjoining homes.

“The crews remained at the scene for some time to conduct salvage operations and ensure there was no hidden fire spread.”