Two toddlers almost set fire to their house when they decided to make breakfast - by putting chocolate bars in the toaster.

Three-year-old Declan Collins and his 22-month-old sister Chyna thought a toasted Milky Way and a Kit Kat would be more fun than bread.

But while their mother, Zara, showered upstairs, their meal went wrong as the wrappers caught fire in the toaster and set it ablaze.

Zara came out of the shower to find Declan climbing up the stairs of their semi-detached house in Sandhurst Avenue, Woodingdean, Brighton, saying: "Fire, Mummy."

Zara grabbed a towel and went downstairs to the kitchen to find flames leaping out of the toaster.

She quickly dialled 999 and two fire appliances from Roedean were soon on the scene.

Firefighters were surprised the toaster had suddenly burst into flames until they discovered a gooey chocolate mess in the toaster and the remains of chocolate bar wrappings.

When Zara, 22, confronted her two children as to who was responsible, Declan looked coyly away and pointed at his younger sister saying: "Chyna did it".

Zara is fairy confident it was Declan's idea to warm up the chocolate bars in the toaster and his sister was keen to help.

She said: "He is a lovely boy but very active. I was only upstairs for a couple of minutes.

"Yet in that time he and Chyna had climbed up on to the food preparation area, plugged in the toaster and put the chocolate bars in.

"My husband, Lee, who was at work at the time, is making a partition so they cannot climb up any more.

"This is the second time he has done something like this. I once caught him plugging in the iron.

"Initially I only dialled 999 to ask for advice as to what to do with a toaster with flames coming out but the fire brigade said they had better send out appliances to be on the safe side.

"From now on I am not going to let these two out of my sight."

An elderly woman set fire to a microwave after she overheated a cheese scone.

Smoke pouring from the oven set off an alarm at her home in Parkfield Road, Worthing, alerting neighbours who called the fire brigade.

When a crew from Worthing Fire Station arrived at 7.20pm yesterday, they found the woman, in her eighties, being comforted by neighbours - unhurt but embarrassed.

A fire brigade spokesman: "It appears the woman was heating up the scone on a piece of kitchen paper in the microwave and left it in there a bit too long.

"The paper towel caught fire and so did the scone.

"These things often escalate into a bigger fire so she was quite lucky."