A woman was arrested on suspicion of arson after a family of four were rescued from their burning home in Shipley.

Three children, aged 14, 12 and seven, were rescued from an upstairs bedroom window while firemen wearing breathing apparatus carried their mother Melanie Hall, who had been overcome by smoke, out of the house in Shipley.

Police later revealed that a 38-year-old woman was being interviewed at Eccleshill Police Station, Bradford.

Firefighters - treating the fire as suspicious - say a smoke detector in the house in West Royd Avenue, Windhill, was not fitted with a battery and said there could have been fatalities if it had not been for a neighbour who spotted smoke and raised the alarm.

Two crews from Shipley Fire Station were called to the scene at 11.44pm last night.

The cause of the blaze, which is believed to have started near an electricity box in the kitchen, was still being investigated by the fire service and police today.

Station Officer Brian De Sykes said: "When we got to the house there was thick, acrid smoke pouring out of the bedroom window and the kitchen window which had been cracked by the heat.

"The two girls and a boy were up at the window and we raised a ladder up to them. Two firemen went up and carried them down the ladder. They were quite badly shaken but paramedics checked them over and fortunately they were okay.

"Two firemen wearing breathing apparatus went in to deal with the fire and get the children's mother out - she was in the hallway but had been overcome by smoke.

"She was given oxygen therapy and taken to hospital.

"There was a smoke detector in the hallway but there was no battery in it. It's pointless having something like that if it's inoperable and for the sake of £1 once a year it could have cost four people their lives. They've been very lucky.''

Station Officer De Sykes said the police, fire investigators and Yorkshire Electricity officials were still looking into the cause of the blaze.

It left the kitchen badly damaged and the rest of the house with minor smoke damage.

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