NEIGHBOURS told today how guests at an engagement party dashed to rescue a man and woman from a blaze in a home in Radcliffe.

The couple were trapped upstairs in their terraced house in James Street.

They screamed for help from a first floor window after realising that they could not get out. Party-goers and other neighbours rushed to help.

A passer-by walking a dog had spotted the flames at 11pm on Friday.

Paul Aubrey and Ruth Hardman were with friends celebrating their engagement when they realised that their neighbour was in trouble.

Mr Aubrey and fellow neighbour Garry Branch, both prison officers, leapt into action and put a ladder up to the window .

Three Green Goddesses arrived at the scene as the couple, who have not been named, were being nursed by an off-duty medic. It is believed the fire may have been started by food left on a cooker.