A NEIGHBOUR carried two young children to safety from a burning house.

Luke Simpson used a ladder to bring the boy and girl down from a first-floor bedroom.

Fire was tearing through the hallway of the terraced home, in Eastfield Place, Sutton, blocking the family's escape.

In total, five people – three of them children – were in the house at the time.

They all escaped, or were helped out, safely.

Three were taken to Airedale Hospital, with various degrees of smoke inhalation and burns.

The blaze broke out at about 1.45am on Sunday, December 2.

Mr Simpson, 27, a joiner, who lives close by, was woken by his wife who had heard a commotion.

"I threw on some clothes and rushed outside," he said.

"The fire was really bad and the mum and some of the kids were still inside.

"I noticed a neighbour had some ladders chained to a wall. He unlocked them and I put them up to the bedroom window.

"I brought a young boy down first and then went back up to get the girl.

"They were conscious, but their faces were blackened with the smoke and they were clearly in shock.

"It was awful."

Mr Simpson said everything happened so quickly, he didn't have time to dwell on his actions.

"My only thought was 'how can we get them down?'," he added.

"I just did what anyone else would do. It was a real team effort – people were footing the ladder for me.

"I couldn't get the mum down but a paramedic went up there and managed to help her down. She looked to be in a bad way."

Yorkshire Ambulance Service sent three crews to the incident.

Firefighters from Skipton and Keighley also attended.

They used two hose reels to tackle the fire, which started in the hallway of the house.

The hallway was extensively fire damaged and there was severe smoke damage to the rest of the property. The occupants had been alerted through smoke detectors.

Investigations are continuing into the cause of the fire.