A BOY aged four playing with a cigarette lighter set fire to his home today.

The blaze broke out in a bedroom at the house on Huntingdon Avenue, Bradley, just before 8am.

The boy's mother was woken by the smoke alarm and managed to carry her baby out of the house and lead the boy and two other children to safety.

Her brother arrived at the home and ran inside to make sure all the children were out. But he was overcome by smoke and twisted his ankle as he fell down the stairs.

He was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Station Officer David Rawnsley, of Huddersfield fire station, said: "The bedroom was virtually destroyed by the blaze and the rest of the upstairs was badly damaged by heat and smoke.

"If the smoke alarm had not woken the mother up, it could have been far worse," he added.