A WOMAN had to be treated for the effects of smoke after a pan left unattended caught fire.

And fire officers stressed the value of smoke alarms following the incident, in Farnworth.

The pan fire started in a house in Firswood Avenue about noon yesterday, filling the ground floor with smoke.

The woman was upstairs at the time, but managed to get out of the house.

She was given oxygen by firefighters.

Farnworth sub officer Lee McDermott said: "If there had been a smoke alarm she would have been alerted earlier."