A FAMILY of three, including a pregnant woman and her two-year-old toddler, fled a burning house by climbing out of a bedroom window in the early hours of Monday.

Anthony Sergeant, 19, held on to his daughter Morgan, and dropped on to a porch above the front door.

He then dropped down to the garden of the house in Greystones Drive, Keighley.

The toddler's mum, 17-year-old Nadien Ward, who is six months pregnant, then scrambled after them, clinging to the window ledge and dropping to safety in her nightwear.

The fire, which broke out just before 3am after a chip pan overheated and caught fire, was confined to the kitchen but the rest of the house was heavily smoke-logged.

The couple could not escape through the front door because it was locked and there was no key.

Nadien, who was asleep in the bedroom with her daughter, discovered the blaze when she went to the toilet.

"I opened the door and saw thick smoke. It was very frightening. It was too thick to get out," she said.

"I banged on the floor to warn Anthony who was asleep in the living room and he ran upstairs because he couldn't get out through the kitchen. Morgan was very frightened and crying and I was very scared that we weren't going to get out."

The couple then dashed two houses away to rouse Nadien's parents, John Ward and his wife Angela Dowthwaite.

Mr Ward, 35, said: "They were very lucky that they had the doors closed or it could have been much worse."

Firefighters urged householders to have contingency plans in place after the family found their only available escape route blocked by a locked door.

Firefighter Joe O'Keefe said: "There was no smoke alarm so they didn't get an early warning. The family also had no plan of action in the event of a fire, and the front door to the house was locked.

"It would have been their ideal escape route but there was no key to the door and the only other way out was through the fire and thick smoke in the kitchen. Consequently, they had to escape from an upstairs bedroom window - the man, his six-months pregnant wife and their baby daughter climbed down on to the porch roof and then down from there.

"They've been very lucky to get out and this could have been a very tragic incident.

"The message is for all households to fit at least one smoke alarm, to devise a fire plan in case of emergency and to make sure that all exits are available with door keys on hand.''

Firefighter O'Keefe said the woman had been given oxygen at the scene before being taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

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