A neighbour helped to rescue a Mid Sussex woman and her dog as fire ripped through her home.

Angela Bish was trapped in an upstairs bedroom when the blaze started at her home in The Dell, East Grinstead, at 3am today.

Ms Bish was woken by a smoke detector and dialled 999 but flames had cut through the phone line.

An alert neighbour spotted the blaze and also rang the fire brigade.

The neighbour then helped Mrs Bish to scramble out of her bedroom window and across a glass conservatory roof to safety.

Firefighters believe the blaze was caused by an electrical fault in the TV in Mrs Bish's living room.

They say the smoke detector which woke her probably saved her life.

She was taken to Crawley hospital suffering from the effects of smoke.