A TODDLER was dropped from the first floor window of a burning house into a blanket in a dramatic rescue.

Teenage baby-sitter Clint Hird smashed a bedroom window before dropping two-year-old Dylan Summer 15ft to safety into a blanket being held by neighbours in Pine Street, Nelson.

Then 17-year-old Clint, of Colne Road, Brierfield, jumped from the window ledge on to cushions put in the street by quick-thinking rescuers.

Clint and Dylan were taken to Burnley General Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. Clint was treated in casualty and discharged while Dylan was kept in overnight and released yesterday.

Firefighters said they got out of the house just in time. Sub officer Gary Ibbitson, of Nelson fire station, said: "They weren't far off not getting out. Their faces were blackened and they had breathed in a lot of smoke. It could have ended up a very different story."

The drama started at 11.10am on Saturday when fire engines were called to the terraced house to find it alight. Beverley Pickles, who lives across the road, said: "There were flames coming out of the windows and you could see the living room was well on fire.

"I saw the lad at the bedroom window holding the baby.

"It was a terrible sight.

"I went out and he broke the window. Glass went all over me.

"Some of the neighbours got a quilt and held it and he dropped the baby into it. Then he jumped out on to some cushions."

Sub-officer Ibbitson said: "It appears the little boy was playing with something which set the settee on fire.

"He went upstairs to get the teenager but then they found they couldn't get downstairs again because of the fire."

The toddler's mother Natalie Quirk arrived as the fire brigade was tackling the fire.

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