A man was lucky to escape injury following a blaze at his Southend flat.

The blaze started when a resident of Pennine, a block of flats in Queensway, fell asleep with his chip pan on the cooker.

The pan caught fire and smoke filled the kitchen in the flat at 3am today.

However, the fire created so much smoke the flames were smothered and the fire managed to burn itself out.

The man, who was in his late 50s, woke up and walked out of the smoke-logged flat unhurt.

Published Thursday, February 21, 2002