A New Catton couple are today recovering at home after a fire that saw them both taken to hospital on Monday.

A kitchen cloth caught fire after being left overhanging a hob in the flat on Angel Road, setting off automatic smoke alarms and alerting the fire service.

Police, ambulance and fire crews from Earlham, Sprowston and Carrow attended the incident, which happened at about 4.40pm on Monday, to deal with the fire and help the two residents from the property.

They were treated by ambulance staff, before the man was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for further treatment, accompanied by his girlfriend.

Speaking today, the 29-year-old man, who asked not to be named, said his girlfriend had been preparing dinner when the smoke alarm sounded.

'She overcooked the beans and when she went to touch the handle she burnt herself, so she got a cloth and wrapped it around the handle.

'The cloth was overhanging the stove and that must have set the smoke alarms off.'

He said he had been asleep when the incident happened, and that he had not expected the fire service to turn up to the flat, which is owned by Norwich City Council.

'The first thing I heard was a wallop on the door, and then they were trying the handle to get in. I went to the door with my girlfriend and they rushed in,' he said.

He added that apart from his cooker no longer working, and the saucepan being ruined, there had been no damage caused to the flat by the smoke.

A fire service spokesman said there had been a small fire and that smoke logging in the flat had been mostly contained to one room.