THE final pensioner to escape from a blazing block of flats “could have kissed” the firemen who got her out.

She was one of 35 people aged 60 and over in a four-storey block of flats when the fire broke out in Bourne-mouth around 8.55pm on Saturday.

They climbed out of ground floor windows and helped each other down the stairs, but two were led to safety from the smoke- logged building by fire crews using breathing apparatus.

Ivy Walker, 86, was in a third floor flat and could not walk down the stairs unaided.

“I was very pleased to see the firemen!” she told the Echo the next day, in the smoke-stained corridor of St Catherine’s Court.

“I could have given them a kiss.”

The 42 flats are on Christchurch Road, between Derby Road and Manor Road, and are managed by Christchurch Housing Society.

The fire started accidentally as an 89-year-old ground floor resident cooked food.

Neighbours heard him call “fire, fire” and the corridor alarm went off. He was found sitting outside with minor burns to his hand, which ambulance crews treated at the scene.

Peter Upton, 73, initially stayed inside his flat but later escaped out of his ground floor window. He said: “The smoke was absolutely black. You couldn’t see through it.”

Alex Altal, 71, helped spread the alarm after opening his door and being hit by the heat and smoke. He added: “I’d been watching the lottery on TV thinking I was going to be lucky.”

A frail 94-year-old woman living above the fire was led to safety by another resident. She said: “It was quite cold outside and a nice man let me sit in his car.”

Residents of neighbouring Exbourne Manor provided hot drinks and clothes.

The fire devastated the affected flat and wrecked white goods, including a microwave, were left outside its boarded-up window. The 89-year-old was said to be staying with a nephew.