A FAMILY-of-three escaped from a house fire after ash from a barbecue put in a wheelie bin caught fire.

The homeowner put the ash from a barbecue held at a house in Kingfisher Court, Clayton Heights, yesterday afternoon into a wheelie bin, which was in a bin store located next to the house.

The ash started a fire inside the bin which then set alight. The blaze spread to the front porch of the house and destroyed the porch's roof and caused fire damage to the front door and windows at the front of the house.

The people inside the house; a man, woman and a boy, who were asleep at the time, were alerted to the fire by a neighbour. They were not injured in the incident and managed to escape through a back door window of the house.

Crews from Bradford and Fairweather Green attended the incident at 2.10am today.

Crew commander Mick Mawson, of Bradford Fire Station, said: "It was quite an intense fire."