A WOMAN was taken to hospital with minor burns after her DIY husband set fire to his paintbrush.

John Atherton had been cleaning the brush with petrol in the kitchen of his home on Tennyson Avenue, Leigh.

But a lit cooker which his wife, Dorothy, was using to cook a meal, ignited the petrol fumes.

Within seconds the entire cooker was ablaze.

Firefighters spent 30 minutes at the scene bringing the fire under control.