Craig Charles reveals fire ripped through his home after Christmas garland was ...

Craig Charles has revealed a smoke alarm saved his family's life after a fire ripped through their home in the early hours of New Year's Eve.

The former Coronation Street star, 57, was awoken from sleep by the smoke alarm beeping - after a candle set a Christmas garland alight, which then spread to the wallpaper.

He told listeners as he presented the Craig Charles early afternoon playlist on his BBC 6 Music show on Friday: 'I'm actually going to share this because it has been on my mind while doing the show.

'Last night or early this morning my life got saved by a smoke alarm.

'In fact, my whole family's life got saved by a smoke alarm, so be careful with your candles.

'In my dream someone had left the fridge door open and when the fridge door is open for too long it starts beeping and that's why I was kicking off in my dream.

'Then I heard one of my daughters shouting 'Dad, Dad, the smoke alarm is going off'.

'We got up, we went down and we have like a garland above the mantlepiece of twigs and berries and holly and a candle, I think it's probably me who should of blown the candle out, I'm not sure but I'm taking the blame anyway, had set fire to the garland which had set fire to the wallpaper on the fireplace.

'We've got this oval leather mirror and the leather had obviously been stretched over a plastic frame because the frame was blazing really hot. You couldn't see anything. There was smoke everywhere.

Craig said the family extinguished the fire with buckets of water but admitted they had been 'very lucky' as the blaze would have 'really taken hold' only five minutes later.    

He continued: 'So the whole wall needs redoing. The ceiling is black with soot and the main

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