PARENTS Angela and Nigel Dodd were lucky to be alive today after escaping their burning home through a downstairs window.

Angela, 36, and Nigel, 39, of Wordsworth Close, Oswaldtwistle, had to climb through their living room window as fire swept through the building at about 2.35am yesterday.

The couple, who have two children, Teresa, 12, and Steven, 17, had just returned from a night out with friends when it is believed an electrical fault in the rear outhouse started the blaze.

Teresa, a Rhyddings HIgh School pupil, and Steven, an apprentice bricklayer, were both staying at friends' houses at the time of the incident.

Angela, a cleaner at Stuart Engineering, in Accrington, said everything happened so quickly they didn't have time to think.

She said: "I just can't believe how it all went up. It just happened so quickly. I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea and when I turned the light on I heard a popping noise like you'd hear if a hairdryer blew up and I could smell smoke.

"When I turned the light off all the electrics just went and the smoke alarms were beeping and there was black smoke everywhere. Nigel just pushed me out of the front window."

Nigel, a chemical processor at Nipa Laboratories, Oswaldtwistle, said: "The firemen said if we had been asleep we wouldn't be alive today.

"It's lucky the kids weren't in the house at the time or who knows what could have happened."

The family are now staying with Angela's brother Gerald in Roe Greave Road, Accrington.

Firefighters used breathing apparatus and two hose reels to get the fire under control and stayed with the family until council workers arrived at about 8am to board up the property.

The outhouse, kitchen and back bedroom were destroyed and the rest of the house was severely damaged by smoke.