An elderly woman died after her bedding caught fire while she was asleep.

The 84-year-old was found by fire crew unconscious on the floor of her bedroom at about 1.30pm yesterday.

Ambulance crews tried to resuscitate her after she had been brought out of the property, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

West Yorkshire Fire Service investigator Nigel Craven said: "The fire started because a bedside lamp had been left on.

"It had fallen to the ground. It had come into close contact with the bedding and set fire to the bed. We found her at the back of the door. We think she was asleep when the fire started."

Her husband, who had been gardening at the time of the incident at The Robins, Burley-in-Wharfedale, was not injured.

The couple's names have yet to be released by the authorities.

After the woman had been removed from the property, firefighters from Rawdon, Ilkely and Otley, brought the flames under control.

The glass from the upstairs window had been blown out.

Furniture and bedding, wrecked by the blaze, was piled outside the property by the fire crew.

Neighbours were too distraught to talk about the incident, but one woman said the emergency vehicles had been there for three hours.

A Rawdon fire station spokesman said: "It was a bedroom fire. All the smoke and flames were contained in the room. These are the worse types of fires because they can flash over."

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "We were called to a report of a fire. Police are working with fire investigators to establish the cause of the fire."

e-mail: nishika.patel@bradford.newsquest.co.uk