FOUR people had a lucky escape from their house after a fire started in the kitchen.

One woman had to to be rescued from an upstairs bedroom by firemen using a ladder and a second woman had to be led to safety by firemen after the fire at the house in Claypool Road, Horwich.

The drama began just after midnight when 16-year-old David McGowan, who was in the living room of the semi-detached house, heard the family's dogs barking and realised the chip pan he had put on the cooker was on fire.

He rushed to the kitchen to find the cooker, units and ceiling ablaze and the house filling with smoke. He and his mum, Michelle Whitehead, aged 38, attempted to fight the fire and David burned his hand before the pair fled the house.

Georgina Farrand, aged 56, and Sarah Farrand, aged 24, were trapped in upstairs bedrooms by the smoke. They spoke to fire service controllers on the phone who gave advice while fire crews from Bolton, Horwich and Salford raced to the scene.

Neighbour Adrian Smethurst came out of his house after hearing loud noises coming from next door.

"I thought it was a disturbance at first but then I saw smoke coming from the kitchen," he said. Firemen guided Georgina to safety but Sarah, who suffers from asthma and was in a back bedroom, had to be given oxygen and rescued via a ladder at the window.

All four householders were taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation but all were later released.

The fire nearly ended in tragedy, said sub-officer Paul Norris, from Bolton Central station.

"The house was fitted with a smoke alarm but they had removed the battery two days earlier because it kept beeping," he said.

Sub-officer Norris stressed that the beeping noise is a warning that the battery is running low, but it should not be removed as the alarm will still function for two to four weeks.