A woman was still being questioned on suspicion of murder this afternoon after a fire left one man dead and a teenage girl fighting for her life.

The man, in his 40s, was confirmed dead at the scene after flames ripped through a house in Pleck Road, Walsall.

A girl, believed to be in her teens, was said to be in a critical but stable condition.

Another girl is being treated in hospital for a suspected broken leg while a woman was treated for smoke inhalation.

A 21-year-old man today told how he had rescued one of the girls as she climbed through a window onto the porch roof as the flames took hold at about 5am yesterday.

Nextdoor neighbour Alec Bryan said: “I came out and I saw her legs hanging down from the roof of the porch.

“I ran over and grabbed her onto my shoulders and just as she came down, the windows exploded.”

Mr Bryan’s mother, Diane Collins, aged 56, said the victim was a “nice, well-mannered” man.

She added: “No one had a bad word to say about him.”