A COUPLE escaped unhurt when a fierce blaze badly damaged their home.

But firefighters have revealed they were lucky to survive after it emerged their smoke detector was in the wrong place and had no battery in it.

The fire - thought to have been caused by an electrical fault - broke out in a bathroom cupboard.

It had been burning for some time when the man was woken up by the sound of the crackling flames at 2.30am today.

He woke his wife up and they managed to get out of the house.

Station officer Paul Mace, of Huddersfield fire station, said: "The fire gutted the bathroom and heat and smoke severely damaged the rest of the upstairs.

"There was a smoke detector upstairs, but it was in the bedroom and should have been on the landing. It had no battery in it.

"If it had been working, the couple would have been alerted to the fire far sooner."