LATE night hunger pangs may have helped save the lives of 10 people who escaped unhurt from Ramsgate Tandoori early on Saturday morning.

Four of them were rescued from the roof of the four storey terraced building in Ramsgate's Harbour Parade shortly before 2am.

The blaze underlines the vital need for smoke alarms. None were fitted.

Staff asleep at the premises were alerted by a colleague who had gone into the kitchen to cook himself some food when he smelt burning and crackling.

He discovered a fire in a first floor bedroom, was unable to put it out and raised the alarm.

Six of the occupants were able to escape via the front door but because of the intensity of the heat and smoke the other four had to flee to the roof.

Two pumps attended from Ramsgate fire station and one from Thanet. Crews rescued the four people stranded on the roof.

Watch manager Simon Brooks said: "It was a struggle to find out how many people were in the building so firefighters wearing breathing apparatus went in to search every floor.

"It was a tough fire to deal with. It was awkward for the crews to make their way around the rooms because of the amount of stuff in them.

"There was uncertainty about how the fire would spread because the construction of those buildings can be quite poor and it could have gone through the roof space.

"What really concerned me was the fact there were no smoke alarms fitted. If that one man had not gone downstairs to do his cooking and become aware of the fire, with everyone soundly asleep, we might have been pulling out bodies."

He said a little smoke inhalation had been the worst any one had suffered.

* Fire crews will carry out free fire home and business safety checks and fit alarms for free. The Ramsgate station can be contacted on 01843 851216, Margate is on 01843 232782 and the fire safety office at Thanet is on 01843 863015.