FIREFIGHTERS have issued a warning that householders should always put batteries in smoke alarms after they rescued a man from his burning house.

Leonard Newham was asleep in a first floor bedroom of his home in Sussex Street, Burnley, when the grill pan that had been left on caught fire in the kitchen.

His 16-year-old son, Lynford, who had been attempting to prepare a meal, was woken by the fire and tried to put it out with a tea towel.

But when the towel also caught fire he was forced to escape from the house and call the fire brigade.

Mr Newham, who was unaware of the developing blaze, had to be rescued by firefighters from the upstairs bedroom.

Neither Mr Newham or his son were hurt in the incident and they only suffered from the effects of smoke inhalation.

But after discovering that the family's smoke detector had not gone off because the battery was missing, firefighters issued a warning to all householders to test their alarms every week.

Assistant divisional officer, Neville Earnshaw, said: "Mr Newham had been unaware that his smoke detector was not in working order because he had not checked it for some time.

"This is exactly the reason for the current national campaign for domestic smoke alarm maintenance -- your smoke alarm is your voice in a fire, don't silence it."

The campaign, which is being reinforced by a new hard-hitting advert being shown on national television with the slogan "Push the button, not your luck", aims to get people to install smoke detectors in the right place in their homes and test them regularly.

Station Commander Kevin Murray said: "It takes just a couple of minutes to test your alarm, but it could save your life."

He said national statistics revealed that 80 per cent of homes have smoke alarms, but in fires where the property had an alarm fitted 28 per cent of them failed to operate.

The figures also show that 40 per cent of the failures were due to missing batteries, and in many cases people said they had deactivated the device because of false alarms caused by things like the smoke from cooking.

But Assistant Divisional officer Earnshaw said the detectors could be replaced or relocated to prevent false alarms and urged people to take up the offer of free advice on the life-saving devices.

The fire service is also offering target groups, including pensioners and single parents, free ten-year smoke alarms, which means the battery does not need to be changed for ten years, as well as free fitting of smoke detectors and free home safety checks to everyone.