A young family had a lucky escape after a fire broke out in the living room of their semi-detached house on Thornton Road in the Kendray area of Barnsley this morning.

Fire Crews were called to the house at just before 1am.  To find the family already out of the property, after being woken up by the young girl coughing.  The family which included two adults and four children - three boys aged two, four and seven and a girl aged two, were attended to by paramedics at the scene but did not need to go to hospital.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used a hose reel to extinguish the fire, which is thought to have started due to a lamp overheating and setting fire to the curtains.

The smoke alarms in the property had been disabled or weren't working. 

Watch Manager Paul Thomas from Barnsley Station said:  "The family are very lucky, if the little girl hadn't woken up, this could have been a very serious tragedy.  I would urge everyone to have a working smoke alarm on each level of their home and to check it once a week to make sure that it is working".

Fire Crews left the scene at 2:08am.