A FAMILY have spoken of their miracle escape from a carbon monoxide leak at their home.

Yusuf and Yasmin Patel, who are now staying with family in Bolton, collapsed after a faulty boiler pumped the lethal gas through their home in Railway Grove, Little Harwood, Blackburn.

Two of their sons, 15-year-old Muhammad and 14-year-old Anas, passed out.

Brother and sister Ahmed, aged 18, and Fatimah, aged 12, escaped the worst of the fumes and were praised for alerting the emergency services on Saturday afternoon.

Ahmed said Sunday’s Blackburn-Burnley derby had inadvertedly saved his family’s lives.

The Rovers employee and Blackburn College student said: “If we had been playing on the Saturday, I would have left for the stadium at noon, and my family could have been killed.”

Mrs Patel, a teaching assistant, said she was cleaning the oven when she began to feel dizzy, as did Mohammed and Anas.

She said: “I went for a lie down, and the next thing I knew the paramedics were waking me up. We all felt tired and we all went to sleep.”

Council worker Mr Patel added: “I got back from shopping and said I would carry on with the work. I started to feel tired and sat down.

“And that was it. We are very lucky.”

Ahmed, who had been in the front room, said he found his family collapsed on the floor in the dining room, around the same time Fatimah arrived home after playing out.

One firefighter who was among the first to arrive said it was "like Armageddon", with bodies sprawled around the back room.

The family were taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital.

After being discharged, they decided to stay with family in Bolton while their boiler is repaired and checked.

Carbon monoxide is both colourless and odourless and can cause those affected to initially suffer dizziness, nausea and lead to collapse and even death.