A COUPLE are lucky to be alive after escaping from a blaze at their Kent home early today in an incident sparked by arsonists.

Kent Fire and Rescue and police investigators are scrutinising the aftermath of the fire which completely destroyed a ground floor flat at Westcliff Terrace Mansions, Ramsgate.

There was no smoke detector fitted at the property in Pegwell Road which has prompted another stern warning from a senior firefighter.

Ramsgate fire station watch manager Chris Nation said the occupants, a man and woman in their thirties, would have died if they had not been woken by the fire.

They had got out of the building. The man, who was suffering from smoke inhalation, had used a garden hose to try and extinguish the blaze.

Two pumps from Ramsgate and a pump and the height vehicle from the Thanet station attended following the call at 2.50am.

The occupants of the other seven flats in the building had been aroused by the hubbub and left the building.They suffered no ill effects. The Red Cross support unit attended.

Mr Nation said: "This was quite a severe fire in a small space, the whole flat was completely written off.

"The pressing point to be made about this fire is that there were no smoke detectors fitted in the flat.

"They are very lucky. Smoke detectors make the difference between life and death. People are 99 per cent more likely to survive a fire with a working smoke detector in place than without."