A PHONE engineer has been branded a ‘hero’ after alerting residents after a fire broke out in a terraced house.

Sean Jones was returning home after a night shift with BT when he noticed smoke coming from a property in Norris Street, Little Lever.

He decided to investigate and when he saw the fire he started banging on residents’ doors to alert them.

Luckily everyone managed to get out of their homes and no one-was injured during the incident. Five fire engines went to the scene and remained there for several hours, tackling the blaze.

John Mcaleer said: “We got woken up at about 4.55am by someone banging on the door. My wife and I looked out of the attic window where we sleep and saw the flames and immediately thought 'we’ve got to get out'.

“I got my wife and daughter to wait by the side of the house while I stayed at the front, Sean came over and asked if we were okay. He said he was driving home and by chance went a different route, saw the smoke and decided to come down our road.

“If it wasn’t for him it could’ve been a lot more serious, he’s an absolute hero in my eyes.

“He’s a brave, brave lad for doing what he did. We were extremely lucky.

“There are so many families on the street with young children, it could’ve been so much worse.

Sean, 30, stayed at the scene until 10am, ensuring residents were fine and speaking with the emergency services, despite the fact he had begun his night shift at 6.30pm on Monday night.

Sean, who also lives in Little Lever, said: “I spotted the smoke and my first thought was someone is dealing with it - that’s what you think when you see smoke during the day.

“But I decided to turn down the road and double check. I realised the fire was quite bad so started knocking on doors to make sure people got out.

“I kept making sure everyone was okay and gave a statement to the police and the fire service. I was there until 10am. I tried to keep all the neighbours calm, I’m so glad I decided to head down that road.

“The fire was really bad and it was blazing through the roof. Some of the residents have got in touch to say thanks. It’s not the first time something like this has happened to me. I had to help with a motorway incident a while ago, it seems to follow me around.”