A ST ALBANS inventor has won £50,000 to develop his idea of a fire alarm that sends text messages into a business.

Matthew Newman, 30, of Ashwell Street, who calls his fledgling enterprise Emergency Life Systems, has been chosen as the regional winner of Barclays Bank's Take One Small Step enterprise competition.

He said: "“This is brilliant - a huge thank you to all who voted and to Barclays for helping to get my idea off the ground. Financing a product’s development and eventual launch can be a real struggle, so I’m thrilled that we’ll be able to make our product a reality which will provide peace of mind to anyone with vulnerable relatives or multiple properties.

“My dream has always been to develop a range of early warning safety products that will help save lives and ultimately allow me to work for myself.

"Every year I’d go away on holiday and always had the fear that I’d come back to find my house had burnt down. Our Firetext smoke alarm sends text messages to up to four numbers as well as triggering an audible alarm. The prize means we’ll now be able to produce and sell these products.”

He will use the prize money to produce the first 1,000 devices, to be assembled by a factory in Scotland, and hopes to sell them to fire service authorities.