The fire service is urging people to take care and make sure they enjoy a safe and spooky Halloween.

It comes after the presenter Claudia Winkleman highlighted just how flammable children’s Halloween costumes are.

Last year, her daughter Matilda, who was eight at the time, suffered burns to much of her body after her witch costume caught fire from a candle in a pumpkin.

Now Hertfordshire County Council has joined the Strictly presenter’s campaign to raise awareness of the dangerous combination of flammable costumes and naked flames.

The service carried out a demonstration to warn parents about the dangers of fancy dress costumes.

The fire service hope its demonstration will make people think twice before lighting candles near children.

They say it could mean the difference between a happy Halloween or one of true horror.

Various costumes were put to the test, with a tealight brushing past the outfits’ hems. The results were shocking – some burning within 40 seconds and melting off the hanger into molten clumps.

All outfits tested had CE marks, which mean they comply with EU regulations on flammability.

The county council's member for community safety Richard Thake said: “Unfortunately fancy dress costumes don’t fall into the same category as other clothing, so they don’t have to meet the same safety requirements.

"If a child were wearing the outfits tested, this would have caused some significant burns which could be quite life changing.”

Hertfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards team is carrying out their own lab tests to take to the government about just how dangerous these costumes can be, and are hoping people will think twice before lighting candles near children’s costumes.

Cllr Thake added: “This is a serious issue about keeping these costumes away from sources of ignition and naked flames.

"We haven’t had local incidences of this; however, we don’t want this year to be the first.”