A lodger had to throw his wife out of a first floor window after breaking it with his bare hands to save her from a blaze engulfing their home.
In a witness statement read out at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court on Friday, Emal Dost described how he was woken by his wife, Wazhma, in their home in Wood End Green Road, Hayes, on September 14 last year, after she smelled smoke and the sound of a fire.
He said: "I opened the bedroom door and was immediately engulfed in thick, hot, black smoke. Within seconds I couldn't see across the room.
"My wife was screaming and I started to shout for help. I managed to break the bedroom window using a flower vase and my bare hands, to which I suffered deep cuts that required hospital treatment.
"I pushed my wife out of the window as she was afraid to jump, and I followed her out.
"She was treated in hospital for a broken ankle and we were both treated for smoke inhalation."
A fire safety officer visited the house five days later and discovered there were no fire doors, fire blankets or fire detectors, and the only smoke alarm that was in the house was not working.
At the time, Amarjit Singh, 33, was also living at the house, but was not there on the night of the fire. He was looking after the house and taking care of the rent, repairs and maintenance for the owner, his uncle, Diljeet Khahra, who lives in America.
Mr Singh pleaded not guilty to seven charges of breaching the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, but at court on Friday the magistrates came to the conclusion that he was responsible for the house and fined him a total of £5,600, plus more than £7,300 in court costs and victim surcharge.
Martin Green, station manager and team leader of Hillingdon, Harrow and Hounslow Fire Safety, said: "Rented premises account for many of the serious fires in London and this judgement should be noted by all landlords that they are responsible, under criminal law, for the fire safety of their rented premises."
