A FIRE broke out at a house in Radcliffe after an elderly man left a cigarette on a towel while going to the toilet.

The 88-year-old man was escorted out of his house, in Chelsea Avenue, by firefighters from Whitefield station at about 2.10pm.

The blaze did not spread further than the bathroom, and the man, who was said to be profoundly deaf, did not require further treatment.