A PENSIONER had a lucky escape after arsonists struck at her home in Coronation Drive, Leigh.

The woman, aged 82, was asleep in her ground floor flat when she was woken by her recently-fitted hard-wire fire alarm.

Arsonists had pushed a rubbish bin up against a window and set it alight. The flat quickly became smoke-logged but the woman escaped without serious injury after the alarm was raised.

Earlier this year the hard-wire alarms were fitted to homes on the Higher Folds estate in a pilot scheme co-ordinated by Wigan and Leigh Housing.

Cllr Fred Walker, a member of the Wigan and Leigh Housing Board and chairman of the Greater Manchester Fire Authority, said: "Without the installation of this hard-wire alarm system the consequences could have been far more serious."