A PENSIONER owes her life to a smoke alarm lying on the bedroom floor. The woman was woken choking as fumes filled her Lower Maescoed home and escaped in the nick of time.

"She is lucky to be alive. Had the alarm been fitted properly it would have gone off much sooner," said Station Officer Neil Pigott, of Hereford fire station.

The pensioner pressed her panic alarm, alerting Herefordshire Council's call centre to the emergency late on Monday, January 26.

Firefighters from Ewyas Harold were scrambled to the scene and the woman had made it outside when they arrived.

She was taken to Hereford County Hospital having inhaled 'a great deal of smoke', said SO Pigott.

The life-saving smoke alarm was found on her bedroom floor. It had batteries, but had not been fixed to the ceiling.

Another smoke alarm on the ground floor had no batteries.

Firefighters have been leafleting Lower Maescoed urging residents to ensure smoke alarms are fitted properly. The area is one of the most isolated to which county firefighters respond.

Monday night's fire started in an electric meter.