Firefighters saved the lives of an elderly couple who were trapped in their burning home.

Neighbours raised the alarm after hearing cries for help from Arthur Marlow, 84, and his wife Sadie, who were in an upstairs bedroom of their terrace home in Vine Street East, Fairweather Green yesterday morning.

Firefighters from Bradford and Fairweather Green were at the scene within minutes and dramatically rescued the terrified couple using ladders, shortly before 9am.

Station Officer Harvey Stewart, of Bradford fire station, said: "The last thing we want to do is bring 80-year-olds down a ladder, but we had no choice. They would have died otherwise."

Fire investigation officers are examining the cause of the blaze, which is suspected to have been a faulty fridge-freezer.

As the rescue was taking place other firefighters broke into the house to put out the fire.

Neighbour Darren Lewis, 37, told how he raised the alarm after he saw Mrs Marlow hanging out of her bedroom window.

He said: "She shouted to me: 'I think I have got a fire'. I rang 999 and checked her neighbours were up too because their house was full of smoke.

Terry Cookland, 12, watched the drama unfold.

He said: "They were hanging out of the bedroom window with smoke everywhere. When firemen knocked down the door, we could see flames inside." Mr and Mrs Marlow suffered smoke inhalation and shock, but were released from Bradford Royal Infirmary yesterday to stay with their daughter in Queensbury.

The kitchen, where the fire started, was badly damaged and the rest of the house smoke-logged.

Smoke also filled neighbouring houses.

The Marlows moved to Bradford from Coventry when they retired to be nearer their daughter.

Mr Marlow's brother, a clergyman, and his wife were rescued from their first floor window when a freezer caught fire in the 1960s in the West Midlands, said Mrs Errington.