A specialist floor layer who worked on TV’s 60 Minute Makeover is lucky to be alive after fire ripped through his flat.

Ben Bryant was on life support for three-and-a-half days after being rescued from his flat in The Maltings, in Clifton Road, Gravesend, after he left a chip pan on and fell asleep.

The 38-year-old was only rescued after neighbours spotted smoke coming from his ground floor flat and alerted fire crews.

Ben’s mum Sarah Bryant, who lives in Orpington, says she can’t thank the residents enough for calling 999.

She said: “If they hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have had a son to visit this weekend.”

The DIY expert has spent just over a week in hospital after the fire on Monday, October 2.

He was on life support as doctors worked to clear his lungs of soot due to breathing in smoke.

Mum Sarah, 57, said: “There was loads of it in his lungs.

“The investigating officer said if he had been found on the bed he wouldn’t be here today.

“And if his neighbours hadn’t rung the fire service when they did he wouldn’t be here.”

Ben, who worked as a specialist floor layer and appeared on ITV’s 60 Minute Makeover in 2013, remembers putting chips on the cooker in a chip pan and falling asleep.

He was found on the floor by emergency services after neighbours called the fire brigade.

Three fire engines were sent and firefighters put out the blaze.

A fire service spokesman said: “Crews wearing breathing apparatus rescued one person from the property and used hose reel jets to extinguish the flames, which were out by 7.19pm.

“The person was passed into the care of paramedics after inhaling smoke.”

Sarah says the flat is now uninhabitable and her son had been left “fragile and emotional”.

“Ben has lost everything he owns,” she said. “He’s very upset and worried about being homeless.

“There’s a lot to sort out. The housing department are trying to find somewhere for him to go when he is discharged.”