A MUM and her baby fled for their lives as a blazing settee filled their home with poisonous fumes.

Lindsey Jones, 18, of Staffa Crescent, Blackburn, grabbed her sleeping one-year-old daughter Bethany and ran from her house after she was woken by the blaze in the early hours of this morning.

Fire officers said Lindsey and her daughter were just minutes from death and lucky to be alive.

They escaped after Lindsey was woken by the sound of smashing furniture around 2am.

She thought someone was breaking in but, when she went to investigate, found the hallway full of thick, black smoke. She said: "I didn't have time to be frightened. I just grabbed Bethany and ran.

"But afterwards I was terrified, especially when the fire brigade told me if I had breathed in two mouthfuls of smoke I would have been dead.

"I am just lucky that I heard the sound of the furniture smashing in the heat - but I won't leave it to chance again.

"I know we got out but it was a too close for comfort. If I had had a smoke alarm, I would have been aware of the danger a lot sooner."

The fire started on the settee and spread to the rest of the living room.

Station officer Barry Ryan from Blackburn fire brigade said: "Miss Jones was very lucky.

"But for the fact that she woke up and her living room and bedroom doors were tightly closed, it would probably have been a very different story.

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