A MAN burnt his hands trying to put out a fire in his attic today. The blaze started in the roof of a house in Lion Street, Church, at 12.40am.

Firefighters were there for three hours extinguishing the fire and making sure the house was safe.

Neighbours on either side were evacuated from their smoke-logged homes.

Station officer John Pinner of Accrington fire and rescue said the man and his partner were out on the street when they arrived. He said: "The fire was severe and burnt the roof away. We managed to stop it spreading to either side."

Neighbour Janice Leah, 55, said: "I had not gone to bed luckily. I heard the commotion outside, people moving about and talking and then someone came knocking at the door and said the house next door was on fire and we needed to get out. So I got my daughter's baby Morgan, aged 11 months, out of his cot and my daughter Alison, 27, woke up six-year-old Grace.

"We went next door to my mother-in-law's for the next two-and-a-half hours until we were told it was safe to go back.

"Our house is not damaged but his looks in a right state. There's a big hole in the roof. I spoke to him outside and he said he had burnt his hands and they were quite sore. His dad took him to hospital."