Alerted by a smoke alarm triggered by the kitchen fire Arthur Ames, 78, and his 74-year-old wife Eileen escaped by lowering themselves six feet from a window of their home in Llanfairtalhaiarn.

Mr Ames called 999 from a neighbour's home at 6.46am on Thursday and crews from Rhyl and Abergele were dispatched but only arrived at 7.44am, by which time their home was well alight.

Despite being provided with the correct address North Wales Fire Service said crews as they got close to the scene could not find the property. Colin Hanks, deputy chief fire officer, said: "We can only apologise for the delay and reassure the public that we are making it our priority to investigate why directions to remote areas such as this present such a challenge.

"Although thankfully in this instance the delay did not endanger life or property any further, it does of course cause us concern.

"We will be making sure that this is addressed in the appropriate way and in addition to offering enhanced home fire safety checks to remote rural areas we will be looking at the way we receive and give out directions to out-of-the-way properties."