A WIRRAL man died in a fire at his home believed to have been caused by a cigarette.

Fire crews were called to the incident at around 7.50pm in Rock Bank, Upton after neighbours raised the alarm.

Birkenhead fire station manager Mark Thomas said: “Fire appliances were quickly on scene.

"Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus had to force entry into the property.

"They located an individual on the kitchen floor and brought the male outside and handed him to paramedics, who immediately commenced CPR.

“Firefighters also carried out a thorough search to make sure no-one else was inside the property and extinguished the fire which involved a ground floor settee.

"A joint investigation is underway into the cause of the fire but at this stage it is thought smoking materials may have been involved.

“Firefighters in Wirral will be carrying out a community reassurance campaign in the area to promote fire safety and reassure the public.”

One neighbour, Jane Sedgwick, whose home backs onto the property, said: "We went out into the garden and into the entry and saw smoke coming out of the windows. We were about to call the fire brigade when they arrived with paramedics.

“We didn’t realise how serious it had been though until this morning when we heard the very sad news.”