A MAN has died following a chip-pan fire at his Harlow home in the early hours of Thursday.

Fire crews were called to the one-bedroom first-floor flat at Hughes Tower shortly after 1.30am where they discovered Nigel Smith unconcious in the smoke-filled living room.

Two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus carried the 25-year-old out before re-entering the building to carry out a thorough search. Two other firefighters carried out resuscitation on Mr Smith before he was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital, but he died later that evening.

Student Louise McQueen, 26, who lives on the fourth floor, called 999 after smelling smoke. She said: "I looked out of the window from the kitchen and could see the smoke and smell the fumes. It was really frightening."

The blaze gutted the kitchen and caused heavy smoke damage to the rest of the flat. A burnt out chip pan was found in the kitchen.

The Harlow Council-owned flat was not fitted with a smoke alarm, despite a poster backing the fire service's recent national smoke alarm campaign displayed in the lobby.

Station officer Mark Wilson said: "It's a tragedy and our hearts go out to the family of the victim.

"I would like to send a message out to all residents in the town to buy and fit a smoke alarm because they prevent incidents like this occuring."

By Thursday afternoon fire officers had handed out 12 smoke detectors to other occupants at the flats and were planning to return to speak to the others.

A Harlow Council spokesman said: "This was a tragic accident and our thoughts are with the tenant's family.

"We have been working with the fire service to identify how we can collectively improve safety in properties in Harlow. We have identified funding which will be used to develop initiatives. We already fit smoke detectors for the most vulnerable tenants.

"We have a policy to fit smoke alarms to properties when we carry out re-wiring and we're looking at how, with the fire service, we can extend this with battery-operated units."