FIRE officers have warned the public not to smoke in bed after a fire in Sackville Street, Brierfield, is believed to have been started from a discarded cigarette.

The fire started in a bed settee in the living room of the terraced house at around 9.30am on Saturday.

When fire fighters arrived smoke was billowing from an upstairs window and when two of them went inside they discovered the fire downstairs.

No-one was in the house at the time. The settee was destroyed, the living room was severely damaged by heat and there was slight smoke damage to the kitchen and bedroom.

Sub officer Lee Flattery said: "We just want to remind people that smoking in bed is dangerous. There was also no smoke alarm in the house. Luckily there was no-one in the house anyway but if there had been a smoke alarm would have alerted them to the fire a lot sooner.

"We managed to contact one of the tenants who said he had been smoking just before he left the house at 9am and he had left the cigarette on the side of the settee."