A HEROIC plumber and his wife helped a young woman escape a house fire after hearing her screaming 'I'm going to die' from a first-floor window.

The blaze started in the woman's bedroom at her house in Gresley Avenue, Horwich, at about 3.30am this morning, July 21.

After hearing screams from the young woman, neighbour Gareth Astbury, a plumbing and heating engineer, ran towards the house and climbed up on to a porch roof at the side of the property.

His wife, Kerry, rang the fire service before retrieving her husband's ladders from his van and taking them over to the house.

Mr Astbury, aged 36, helped the woman shimmy along a ledge and on to the garage roof and down the ladders to safety.

He said: "I woke up to the noise of the young girl screaming from the bedroom window, she was saying 'I'm going to die.'

"I ran across and you could see a glow in the room from the flames, I told her she needed to get out of that room immediately.

"I jumped up on some wheelie bins and on to the garage roof and helped her across.

"My wife had got the stepladders out and we were able to help her get down them and away from the house, we worked quite well as a team I suppose.

"It’s just what you do isn't it? I wasn't just going to leave her in that house."

Mrs Astbury, aged 35, who works for HMRC, and has two young children with her husband of six years, said she was worried he would run into the burning house.

She said: “I did think that he would go straight in to the house when he ran over.

“I am very proud of him, although I knew he would do what was needed to be done — that is what he does.

“There was another lady who lives nearby was really good at speaking to the girl and comforting her — we all really hope she is ok.”

After the dramatic events, the couple stayed with the young girl and then both went straight to work.

The fire service arrived at the scene and were able to put the fire out, with significant damage done to the first floor of the house.

Police and fire investigators have launched an investigation to try and establish how the blaze started.

The young woman, who is thought to be 18 years old, was taken to hospital for precautionary checks after inhaling some smoke during the incident.

A spokesman for the fire service said: “We were called to the scene of the fire at 3.30am.

“We found that a young girl had been helped out of the property by her neighbours.

“We were able to put the fire out, although it destroyed the upstairs bedroom and caused significant damage to other parts of the house.”