A MOTHER has spoken of her horror after a potentially deadly gas leak forced her and two of her children out of their home for a week.

Crystal Halsall, 32, her daughter Ayla, seven, and son Charlie, four, were all taken ill after a mystery odourless leak at their terraced house in Accrington.

Ms Halsall said advice from members of a Hyndburn Facebook group saved her children's lives.

National Grid engineers visited the rented property, in Craven Street, to cap a gas pipe last Wednesday - four days after the leak was believed to have started.

Ms Halsall said she and the youngsters had suffered headaches and a loss of co-ordination from Saturday morning, but were unaware of the leak until she asked for help on the 'Free items around Accrington's BB post code' Facebook page.

She said: "On the Saturday morning me and both the kids had splitting headaches. It was the same on Sunday and for the next three days my head was banging. I had to give the kids painkillers and I was losing my balance and co-ordination.

"I knew there was something up and we have two boilers in our house - one for water and one for central heating - so I wondered if it was a leak from one of them.

"I went on to Facebook and asked if anyone had a carbon monoxide testing kit and a lady round the corner had one. It tested negative but that made me panic even more.

"I rang the fire service and they couldn't help but said get on to the National Grid straight away. They were round within an hour and shut the supply off."

Ms Halsall, who has rented the home from Lucky Properties for 11 months, said the estate agency had been 'really good' about the scare.

Landlord Imran Khan said: "The gas safety certificate was done last September but obviously something has happened since then.

"We think it was just a minor leak and we've been round to replace the boiler with a couple of engineers and they should be ok to move back in today."

The trio stayed with Ms Halsall's family while the house was made safe and the supply remained switched off until yesterday, with the family unable to cook or wash at home.

She said: "I can't praise the landlord and the National Grid engineers enough, they have been great.

"But I think the people on Facebook saved our lives. Without their advice, I may not have got it checked out and we could easily have died.

"It just goes to show the sense of community there can be online."

Joseph McMurrough, who runs the 7,000-strong Facebook group, added: "We have a great community of people looking to help each other out in sticky situations."