A FIRE which left a woman fighting for life was caused by a fault in her TV, fire officials said.

Margaret Jackson, 55, remains in a critical but stable condition after she was rescued from a house fire in Windermere Road, Padiham.

It is believed she left the TV on standby before going to bed on Sunday night.

John Taylor, of Lancashire Fire and Rescue, said: “People should always turn their TV off at the socket instead of leaving it on standby.

“Electric goods also need to be serviced regularly and occasionally replaced as well.

“In this case there was a smoke alarm at the property, but the batteries had been taken on, so the occupier was given no early warning.

“All the doors had also been left open, allowing the smoke free reign to go upstairs.

"If the doors had been closed it would have contained the fire and kept an escape route clear.

"This lady had also left her mobile phone downstairs, so was unable to ring us and we couldn’t give advice.”