Firefighters in Cleckheaton are stepping up their campaign to warn residents in the Spen Valley about the dangers of chip-pan fires.

Cleckheaton fire station is blitzing homes on the Hare Park and Windy Bank estates in Hightown, Liversedge, with leaflets offering free fire risk assessments of their properties.

It involves a firefighter visiting homes to alert the residents to potential fire hazards and offering to install free smoke detectors where needed.

The latest initiative comes after two chip-pan fires within days of each other in Liversedge.

The first was at the home of Frederick Dixon, 55, of Hare Park Avenue. The blaze caused extensive smoke damage to his flat.

Brian Hughes, the new commander of Cleckheaton fire station, revealed a smoke alarm had been fitted but the battery had run out.

He said: "If the smoke detector had been working he would have been alerted to the fire much quicker and the tea towel may well have worked.''

The second fire was at the home of Amy Langfield, 71, of Central Avenue, Windy Bank. A smoke detector alerted neighbours to the fire.

She was rescued by Michelle and Arron Bowman, of Fourth Avenue on the estate, who had been visiting relatives near Mrs Langfield's home at the time.

Mr Hughes said: "The smoke detector undoubtedly saved the lady's life. There are two valuable lessons to be learnt from these two incidents.

"One is the importance of having smoke detectors in the home and making sure the batteries work and the need to get the wiring checked regularly.

"The other is that vulnerable people such as the elderly and the visually impaired need to be particularly careful with chip pans.

"My advice would be to use electric fryers which have thermostat controls or to eat oven chips.''

Mr Hughes said there had been 17 chip-pan fires in the Cleckheaton area in 1996, 13 last year and six so far this year.

The two main causes of chip pan fires are the oil/fat overheating or the oil/melted fat spilling onto the cooker either because the pan has been filled too high or wet chips being put in hot oil causing it to bubble up and overflow.

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