Five men were led to safety from the upstairs of an Indian restaurant to save them from thick smoke pouring from a burning extractor unit.
The men were woken from their beds, then helped downstairs and outside the Indian Valley restaurant, in London Road, Leigh, by two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus, just after 5am on Sunday morning.
Fire crews from Hadleigh and Leigh were called to the scene just after 5am yesterday (Sun) after receiving a tip-off from a passing driver, who saw smoke pouring from the back of the restaurant.
A fire had broken out in the extractor unit, than spread to parts of the kitchen.
Hadleigh leading fireman, Ian Rider said: "There was a lot of smoke, particularly upstairs. It's lucky we got there when we did because there was no smoke alarm, so the people upstairs received no warning and were still asleep.
"If we had got there a few minutes later we could have had a deadly situation on our hands."
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