Newly-wed Emma Benn's wedding dress and her toddler son's Christmas presents were destroyed when fire tore through the sitting room of her home yesterday.

Mrs Benn, 24, grabbed two-year-old Daniel, wrapped him in a blanket and fled the terraced house, after raising the alarm at lunchtime.

Left to burn in the sitting room was the wedding dress she had worn the previous Thursday when she married her partner, 30-year-old Shaun Benn, at Exley Head Methodist Church, Keighley.

Along with the dress were Daniel's Christmas presents, including his wooden railway set.

And also burning in the house in Croft Head Terrace at Glusburn near Skipton were the hundreds of pounds worth of gift vouchers given as wedding presents by friends and family.

"Daniel didn't know what was going on. He was asleep and I'd just had a bath," said his mother. "I put a blanket round him and dashed down the stairs. I was hysterical because I didn't know if we could get out."

They escaped through the kitchen and were met by Shaun, a National Health Service auditor, pictured here with Emma.

Skipton fire service Assistant Divisional Officer Stuart Stoney said he thought the blaze - which caused severe damage to the room - was started by an electrical fault.