A MAN escaped unhurt from his burning flat after a chip pan caught fire.

The man in his mid-30s had put the pan on at his ground floor flat on Newlands Court in Birkby shortly before 10.30 last night but then fell asleep.

He was woken up by a smoke detector, alerted fire crews and then escaped.

Watch Manager Andy Farrell, of Huddersfield fire station, said: "The smoke detector was correctly positioned in the hall.

"It did its job by waking him up and alerting him to the danger.

"If he had not had a smoke detector, the fire would have been far more severe, putting his life in danger."

The kitchen door was shut and crews managed to confine the fire to the chip pan, but the kitchen was badly smoke-damaged.

Firefighters have again urged people to throw away chip pans and use oven chips or deep fat fryers instead.

* A fire caused by a candle badly damaged a flat.

The scented candle had been left burning in a first-floor flat on Fryer Place in Bradley after the man who lives there went out.

Firefighters believe the candle burned down and then toppled over, setting a bed alight yesterday teatime. Smoke was spotted at 5.20pm.

Crew manager Paul Mellor, of Huddersfield fire station, said: "We would urge people to make sure candles are in correct holders and fully extinguished if they are not in the same room."