Supervisor John Guiguet (41) and two colleagues ran for their lives as the fire swept through the building leased by medical supplies company Brosch Direct.

Today, as the wreckage of the 100-metre long warehouse still burned and
investigators probed the cause, Mr Guiguet revealed how he was saved – by his car key fob.

Blinded by thick, black and choking smoke, he had stumbled out of the doomed distribution centre but couldn't see his way to safety.

That's when Mr Guiguet had the sudden idea of pressing the key ring fob to make the indicators on his parked car flash – and they guided him to safety through a bright day that had been turned black as night.

He said: "I am lucky to be here, really. It could have been far worse if it hadn't been for some quick thinking.

"Another 20 seconds and I wouldn't have made it."

What had begun as an ordinary day turned into the most terrifying, and the luckiest, day of his life for Mr Guiguet.

When he turned up for work at 7.25am he went into the office at the warehouse in Funtham's Lane, which is leased by medical supplies company Brosch Direct from the Abbey Group, and chatted to a colleague about business at the firm's other Peterborough site in Orton
Southgate.

Suddenly there were shouts of "Fire!" from the only other member of staff who was in the building before the shift started at 8am.

Mr Guiguet said: "I looked out of the office door and saw fire at the far end of the warehouse, which is about the length of a football pitch. I said, 'Let's grab some bits and pieces,' like computers which weren't backed up.

"But when I looked again 10 to 15 seconds later, the flames had come three-quarters of the way down the building and the fire was racing across the ceiling.

"I said, 'Lets go now!' and we went for the door. One of my colleagues got out, then the door shut, and when I opened it, it caused a vacuum or a backdraft or whatever, and the smoke was all around me. It was like night-time. I couldn't see a thing."

Thanks to his key however, the lights flashed on his car parked just 15 yards away, and that guided him to the vehicle. He drove to safety and then helped one of his colleagues raise the alarm and alert a neighbouring warehouse.

No-one was seriously hurt in the escape, but the ambulance
service said two people required treatment at the scene for smoke inhalation.

But his excitement was not all over, when Mr Guiguet, of Glebe Road, Stilton, had an emotional reunion later with his long-term partner Sara Croucher.

When he met her at her workplace in Peterborough city centre, there was a shared sigh of relief at his escape – then to his surprise, Miss Croucher, who had been planning to exercise her woman's right and propose on Friday, popped the question four days early.

She said: "I nearly lost him yesterday, which made me think that you don't know how long you are here for.

"Fortunately, he said yes."

Today they plan to hang on to the good memories of yesterday, and not dwell on how close it all came to disaster.

Special Report: Whittlesey factory fire, February 2008