Dame Joan Collins thinks she's "lucky to be alive" following a recent fire at her London flat

She told the Daily Mail newspaper: "The thing is, if Percy hadn't gone in with the extinguisher the entire flat would have been consumed by flames. What he did, in fact, was save the whole building. Percy's a hero.

"I know a lot of guys who wouldn't have gone in. He made a great sacrifice.

"And we're lucky to be alive. I keep thinking: 'What if we'd been asleep and hadn't heard the alarm? What if we'd gone to a movie?'"

Joan also admitted she had to plead with her husband to flee the scene of the fire.

She recalled: "The smoke alarms were beeping and by then the burglar alarm had gone off, too. The place was a cacophony of noise.

"I went back to the flat and the smoke was so thick in the hallway I couldn't take a step in. I yelled at Percy to come out, and eventually he did."

Meanwhile, Percy - who has been married to the actress since 2002 - admitted he didn't have time to consider the dangers of the situation.

He shared: "The shock pushes everything to the back of your mind and you just deal with the here and now. You try to put out the fire. That's your immediate thought: 'How does the fire extinguisher work?'

"And then, of course, the firefighters came and they go into the worst of the worst situations and are so selfless. They're worthy of such high praise. In fact, I think they shouldn't have to pay taxes!"