PARENTS are being warned to keep matches and lighters out of children's reach after a five-year-old boy set fire to his bedroom.

Joshua Ashton got hold of his mother's cigarette lighter at their terraced home in Queen Street, Clayton-le-Moors, yesterday morning.

Mum Carol was in bed when Joshua went into her bedroom and said he was tired.

She said: "I heard crackling, got to the door and smelled smoke."

She closed the door on the blaze before getting Joshua out of the house and banging on a neighbour's door to phone the fire brigade.

Carol said: "Luckily we are both all right. I usually put my lighter out of the way but Joshua must have found it and been playing with it."

The fire was confined to the bed and some floorboards, which were destroyed, with smoke damage to the upstairs.

Mother and son are staying with Carol's mum while an electrician checks the wiring and the house is cleaned.

Chris Hollis, station officer at Accrington, said: "Luckily Joshua made his own way out of the bedroom.

"We would warn parents to keep lighters and matches out of the reach of young children because they are a temptation."

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