A family escaped a house fire by climbing onto the top of a bay window while a fire burned in the kitchen of their Cowlersley home.

A mother and son were treated in hospital for smoke inhalation following the incident on Western Road at 12.21am on Saturday.

The family had been alerted to the fire by a smoke alarm, but by then the downstairs of the house was filled with smoke, making their escape difficult.

Watch Commander Andy Rose, of Blue Watch at Huddersfield Fire Station, said: “When we arrived the mum, dad and son had self-rescued, they had got onto a bay window after being trapped upstairs because of the intensity of the smoke downstairs.

“The mother and son suffered smoke inhalation and were treated at the scene and then taken to hospital for a check-up.”

Six firefighters from Huddersfield, backed up by a crew from Slaithwaite, entered the property wearing breathing apparatus to fight the fire.

Three water jets were used to douse the flames while a high powered fan was needed to clear the smoke.

Mr Rose added: “The bottom floor was heavily smoke-logged, it had been burning at quite an intensity and a lot of the smoke was toxic.

“There was a smoke alarm and it was working, but it was on a shelf lower down in the room, we always advise fitting a smoke alarm to the ceiling because smoke rises and it will alert you much quicker.”

A fire investigation officer attended the scene and the most likely cause of the blaze was an electrical fault with the fridge freezer.

Mr Rose added: “Fires do happen, we know that, so it’s important to take precautions.”

He said smoke alarms should be fitted to ceilings on all floors of a property.