A dog was rescued when a blaze started by a cigarette tore through a house in Macclesfield leaving a woman homeless.

Border collie Storm was trapped in the kitchen when the fire took hold at Dorset Walk, Upton Priory, on Saturday afternoon.

Fire crews carried him outside and neighbours gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage before he was given oxygen and  taken to a vet.

Storm’s distraught owner Julie Anne Schofield, 53, who was in Tesco when the fire broke out, has been taken in by her adopted sister Sybil Bamforth, 49, who lives on the same road. Two pet cats died in the fire.

Sybil, who lives with her son and was in her own home  when the fire broke out, said: “I got her next door neighbour knocking on my door asking if I knew where she was because there was a fire.  Julie had no idea and was in Tesco when I found her.

“Now she only has the clothes she stands up in.

“Both her cats died in the fire but luckily Storm was locked in the kitchen and that saved him.”

Storm was given back to Julie on Monday afternoon.

Sybil said: “The neighbours were great. One of them was trying to give him mouth to mouth and another gave him a heart massage.

“He went to the  vet’s to be put on a drip and get rid of all the toxins in his system.

“Storm is now staying with one of Julie’s friends for a while until she sorts herself out.  He can’t stay with me unfortunately because I have one of my own.”

The house damaged by the fire is owned by Peaks and Plains. Two other neighbouring houses were damaged by smoke. Neighbour Ronel Gimeno, 33, a dad of two, said he was out shopping when he received a call from a neighbour about the fire.

He said: “We were not here when it happened. Our neighbours and friends round the other side called us while we were at the Trafford Centre to say next door was on fire and we came rushing back.

“By the time we got home the fire crew had smashed our back door to get in because they saw smoke coming out of our house too. Luckily it was just a bit of smoke damage.”

Firefighters said they believed the blaze was caused by a cigarette.

Pete Lloyd, watch manager and incident commander, said crews from Wilmslow and Poynton were called to the property at 2.30pm by a neighbour, after smoke was seen billowing from the windows.

He said: “We believe it started in the lounge and we are putting it down to smoking materials.

“It was an accidental fire. A chair started to burn and caused a large fire in the lounge, which has broken through the ceiling above and into the bedroom, causing severe damage.

“Smoke travelled through the attic, causing damage to two more terraces.”