Man escapes Melbourne house fire

A man who fell asleep in the lounge of his north Melbourne home has woken to find the place well alight.

Firefighters say he was lucky to escape from the Bundoora property which had no working smoke alarms fitted when it caught fire early on Sunday morning.

The single storey, brick veneer house was fully involved in fire when Metropolitan Fire Brigade crews arrived.

Seven appliances and about 25 firefighters took 25 minutes to control the blaze but the house was extensively damaged, with part of the roof collapsing.

The cause of the fire is unknown and specialist fire investigators will be inspecting the scene later on Sunday morning.