A BAILIFF BRIDGE man was taken to hospital suffering burns, after falling asleep while smoking in bed.
The fire started at 5.30am on Sunday in the attic bedroom of a house at Summerfield Road, Bailiff Bridge.
The man, aged in his 20s, had come in during the early hours of Sunday morning and had fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette in bed.
He woke up to discover that his clothes were on fire.
He suffered burns to his wrists and hands and smoke inhalation.
Firefighters from Brighouse were called to the incident and treated the man's injuries with burn bags.
Paramedics then took him to Calderdale Royal Hospital, in Halifax, for treatment.
The man had no smoke detector in his attic room and, because smoke rises, the detectors lower in the house did not go off and alert the two other occupants.
A Brighouse firefighter called to the incident warned about the dangers of smoking in bed.
He said: "He was lucky.
"If he had not woken up it could easily have been serious. The smoke could have killed him while he slept."
