A SMALL child accidentally started a fire in a Bradford house yesterday after playing with a cigarette lighter.

Firefighters from Bradford station were called to Eastfield Gardens, Holme Wood, at about 4.50pm.

A mum and her three children, aged seven, three and two, had fled the property after the fire started in a plastic toybox in the living room.

Watch commander Gio Richetta, of Bradford station, praised the woman for getting herself and the children out of the property as soon as possible, butwarned: “People need to keep smoking materials from the reach of children.”

He added that one of the younger children had accidentally started the fire.

The living room was damaged by the fire and the rest of the property heavily smoke-logged. No-one was injured.