A LEAFLET deliverer was today hailed a hero after saving a Felixstowe family's home after spotting smoke pouring from an upstairs window.The mystery Good Samaritan called the fire service, who had to break into the property, where a saucepan had been left on the cooker.

By Richard Cornwell

A LEAFLET deliverer was today hailed a hero after saving a Felixstowe family's home after spotting smoke pouring from an upstairs window.

The mystery Good Samaritan called the fire service, who had to break into the property, where a saucepan had been left on the cooker.

Meanwhile, in Ipswich, firefighters led a woman to safety from her burning flat after a fire that is also thought to have been started by a cooker.

In Felixstowe, George Cornforth arrived home at his house in Wesel Avenue to find a police car outside and the building heavily smoke-logged.

His wife Gill said: "We were very shocked and you always think the worse. I thought the place would be wrecked inside, but thankfully it is just smoke damage. We have been very lucky."

Mr and Mrs Cornforth, who have a daughter Jasmine, ten, said smoke had been spotted by a person delivering leaflets to houses in the area.

"We don't know who they were but apparently they called the fire service. We are very grateful because the damage could have been so much worse," said Mrs Cornforth.

"The fire service broke in through the front of the house. The smoke alarms were all going off. We had left a saucepan on the cooker and it just shows how easily these things can happen."

Two fire crews from Felixstowe attended at 2.45pm yesterday and put out the fire in 15 minutes.

At Newnham Court in Ipswich, fire crews attended a blaze at 5pm in the kitchen of a floor flat, thought to have been started accidentally from the cooker hot plate.

Assistant Divisional Officer Karl Rolfe, station commander of Princes Street fire station in Ipswich, said: "We rescued the resident from the first floor flat.

"She had suffered some smoke inhalation and a slight burn to one hand and was taken to hospital by ambulance."

Margaret King, 53, who was visiting her mother Daphney Weller, 74, who lives next door to the woman's home, said: "I came to give my mother her tea at about 4.30 and I thought I smelt burning toast.

"The next thing I knew my mother was in tears on the phone saying there had been a fire."

Two fire engines from Princes Street and one from the fire service headquarters in Colchester Road attended the blaze.