COUNCIL workmen moved in within 48 hours to upgrade a high-security window which turned a bedroom into a fire-trap.

A terrified Hyndburn family could not get out of the upstairs room in Browning Avenue, Oswaldtwistle, after a chip pan fire filled their house with smoke in the early hours.

And today, safety experts urged Hyndburn Council to carry out risk assessments in every one of its homes which still have the old-style windows.

Edwin Berry and his partner Lindsey Anderson found the window in their Oswaldtwistle council house would not open wide enough to allow them and their children to escape.

Firemen said they were lucky to be alive after they forced their way in and carried the family and their pet dog to safety.

Mr Berry, 43, said: "We went to the window to get out but we couldn't get through because it wouldn't even open enough to pass a child through. And the glass is toughened safety glass so we couldn't even break that to get out.

"If we hadn't had a telephone in the bedroom to call the emergency services I don't know how we would have got out."

Firefighters forced the window before carrying the three children -- Ruth, seven, Rebecca, six and Daniel, three -- and then Ms Anderson from the smoking building. Mr Berry followed.

Today, a spokesman for Rona Courtney, Hyndburn Council's housing manager, said that the specifications for windows like those at the house were correct at the time they were fitted.

"Security was considered to be most people's major concern then, and we can't go back and fit new windows to every house," he added.

However, work was under way to fit special restrictor arms to existing older-style windows.

These maintained security from the outside but allowed occupants to open the windows wide from inside. This had now been done at Mr Berry's house, he confirmed.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said the council should endeavour to carry out a risk assessment at each of its houses where the old-style windows were still fitted.

Some families would be in more danger than others -- particularly those with small children.

But it welcomed the fact they were carrying out a programme of installing new restrictor arms.

"It's a question of finding the right balance between security and family safety," he said.

The family were all treated at the scene by paramedics for the effects of smoke inhalation and taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

They went home later the same day.

Fire chiefs said the family of five were lucky to escape with their lives.