A CAT was revived by firefighters who rescued it from a blazing house in Folkestone.

Figaro was cradled by Paul Copley and Jansen Smith as they placed an oxygen mask over his face after he was found on the smoke-filled staircase at the address in Oxenden Road.

It took 10 minutes to resuscitate the 10-year-old Simpson family pet who would have been dozing on a bed upstairs. Once revived, Figaro ran off under a car to hide.

Crews were called to the house by neighbours who saw smoke billowing from the windows. An electrical fault in a kitchen socket caused the blaze which wrecked the kitchen and covered the rest of the house with soot.

Mrs Many Simpson said: "We would like to say thank you to the firefighters for what they did. Our neighbours said Figaro was lifeless when he came out. The fire has been devastating. I can't imagine what it would have been like if any of us had been here at the time."

Firefigher Copley said: "It was a pretty serious fire and the cat was in a bad state. The mask, which we use to resuscitate people, went over his nose."