A young family's smoke alarm saved their flat when a cooker caught fire in their absence.

Natalie Riches and Steve Connolly had taken baby Katie-Jane out for lunch yesterday, when they were called by a neighbour, saying firemen had broken in to the two-bedroom flat.

Miss Riches, 20, said she thought the friend must be joking, but quickly realised they had had a lucky escape.

She thinks Katie-Jane, who is 14 months, fiddled with the electric cooker knob before they went out, which led to a basket of clothes on the hob catching fire.

They usually turn the cooker off at the main switch, but forgot, she said.

Fire and smoke damage were confined to the kitchen diner, but the couple were due to go into temporary housing after spending the night with Mr Connolly's mother in Twinstead.

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