Two people were taken to hospital this morning after being rescued from a burning house.

A 17-year-old man was carried out of the lounge and a 21-year-old woman rescued from an upstairs bedroom of the house in Poplar Drive, Owlet, Shipley, by firefighters.

They were taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary where they were treated for smoke inhalation. It is suspected that the fire started when a pan was left unattended in the kitchen.

The blaze destroyed the kitchen and smoke damaged the dining room and upstairs bathroom.

Neighbours Lynsey Pullan, 29, and Andrew Barlow, 31, rang 999 after being woken up by the smell of smoke.

Miss Pullan, who works in sales for Pace Micro Technology in Shipley, said: "I thought it was our house at first because there was smoke in the kitchen.

"Then we realised it was next door. We could hear somebody crying out for help so Andrew broke the door down and we went in with towels over our faces but we couldn't see anyone for the smoke. It was very frightening, I could hear the crackling of things melting and it was very claustrophobic."

The fire was attended by Shipley and Bradford firefighters at 6.20am. Leading firefighter Andrew Farrell warned people to check their smoke alarms.

He said: "Unfortunately the battery had been removed from a smoke detector upstairs."