Five members of a family were taken to hospital after a fire broke out in the lounge of their home in Lidget Green.

Emergency services were called to Waverley Road, Lidget Green, at 11.45pm yesterday after a blaze was reported by neighbours.

Firefighters said the seven members of the family were out of the house by the time crews arrived.

Neighbour Mohammed Basharat, 40, said he and his wife’s brother, Naheem Raja, helped three members of the family escape the fire from the front of the house.

Mr Basharat said the other four members managed to make their way out of the back of the house.

Watch commander Richard Lightowler, of Fairweather Green fire station, said flames where shooting out of the downstairs window by the time crews arrived.

He said: “It was a very intense fire and they were licking up to the upstairs of the building.”