BREAKING - two women escape fire in Ballymoney

Emergency crews were called to the property in the Eastermeade Gardens area just after 4am on Friday.

The women, aged 47 and 17, had called for help after becoming trapped in the second floor of the house, which had filled with smoke after a fire took hold in the kitchen.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus went into the house.

They led the pair to safety and passed them on to ambulance crews to be taken to hospital for treatment on the effects of breathing in smoke.

District fire commander David Heyburn said they had had a lucky escape as the house was not fitted with a smoke alarm.

He said: “There was no smoke alarm in this property so it’s very fortunate they became aware there was a fire in their house.

“We would be saying to people that you really do need to make sure you have a working smoke alarm and test that smoke alarm every week.

“In this case, had there been a working smoke alarm, they could have had early alert to the fire being there and could have made their way out of the property themselves, and that would have left us only to be concerned with the fire and wouldn’t have had to engage with a rescue attempt.”

The fire was extinguished by around 5.40am.