Family flees Leigh house fire blamed on shower extractor fan

Firefighters were at the blaze scene for 90 minutes

A family member was taking a shower in the bathroom of the house in Priestfield, Leigh, when smoke began pouring into the room from above.

The mother, father and daughter all got out of the premises as flames took hold in the loft and firefighters from Leigh and Atherton said they found it difficult to access the area before putting out the fire using a hose reel.

Leigh watch manager, who supervised the emergency incident at 10.30pm on Tuesday, said: "It looks like the electric motor on the ceiling extractor fan was to blame.

"It was a tricky fire to get at up in the roof space and we were there for about an hour and a half.

"Thankfully all the occupants self-evacuated and came to no harm and there was minimal smoke damage to the rooms.

"But we had to cut out sections from several burnt joists and these will have to be replaced."