FIREFIGHTERS had to help a man down the stairs of a block of flats in Harnham in the early hours of Tuesday after fire broke out on the ground floor.
The blaze, the cause of which is being investigated, began just after 5am in a flat on the ground floor of the block in Essex Square.
The occupant of the affected flat, roused by a smoke alarm, was able to get out quickly, but a man in an upstairs property, although mobile, had to be helped downstairs by firefighters and was given medical treatment at the scene by paramedics.
Station officer Andy Hargreaves, of Wiltshire Fire Brigade, said the room in which the fire started was well alight when the brigade arrived and the block was heavily smoke-logged.
"Everyone got out alive," he said, "which is wonderful.
"This was a serious fire and the premises were severely damaged by smoke."
He said the cause of the fire remained unknown.
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