A mum and daughter died today when fire swept through their Bradford home.

The tragedy is the second devastating blow to the family after the woman's husband was paralysed in a car crash in January.

Rose Adams, 38, and her 18-year-old daughter Joanne perished after being trapped upstairs when the blaze broke out at their semi-detached house in Vivien Road, Lower Grange.

Mrs Adams' 17-year-old son Peter managed to escape and was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary suffering from smoke inhalation. A hospital spokesman said his condition was not serious.

Her husband Harry McTasney was in St Luke's Hospital today still recovering from the car crash. Mrs Adams retained her surname from a previous marriage.

The alarm was raised by Peter, who was woken by screaming and managed to escape the blaze to call the fire brigade at a neighbour's house at 3.45am.

Mr McTasney's sister-in-law, Roxanne McTasney, said: "Rose has gone through so much with what's happened to Harry.

"All this is so hard to understand. I can't believe it. Rose was a lovely person."

Mrs McTasney said her brother-in-law was in St Luke's Hospital following the accident in Harrogate Road, Apperley Bridge, on January 4. He is unable to walk and has just started moving his arms.

Jason Joseph, 24, a close friend of the family, said: "I'm absolutely devastated by the news.

"The whole street is just in total shock - nobody can believe this has happened.

"The first I knew about the fire was when I was woken up by sirens at 4am. But all I could see was smoke and I didn't think it was anything serious.

"Rose and Joanne were very friendly people and everyone knew them and got on well them.

"Everybody's terribly upset - they will be badly missed."

Firefighters from Fairweather Green and Bradford, police and ambulance crews attended the blaze.

Sub Officer John Henson, of Fairweather Green fire station, said: "We found a severe fire on the first floor and a person outside saying two people were missing.

"Four firefighters with breathing apparatus searched the house and brought two people out.

"The heat, smoke and fire damage was largely confined to the bedroom, which was severely damaged."

Sub Officer Henson added: "The house did not have smoke alarms. A smoke alarm might have saved their lives."

Other neighbours today expressed their shock at the tragedy.

Richard Bloodworth, 52, who lives next door, said: "I saw the fire engines coming but there was no sign of smoke or fire, so I just presumed the smoke alarm had gone off."

Paul Nichols, 17, who lives opposite, said: "I woke up and saw flashing lights and a fire engine. But because there was no smoke or flames I didn't think anything serious had happened, I was very shocked to find out how serious it was."

Neighbour Katherine Bisett, 30, said: "About 6am my friend came into my room and said there was a fire engine outside, we saw flashing lights when we looked out of the window and there was just one fire engine outside the house but I didn't know anything more about what had happened until later on this morning when I saw a policeman stood outside the house."

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said the mother and daughter were pronounced dead at BRI.

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