The two children were asleep when the blaze started in their bedroom at the basement flat in Cromwell Road, Hove, where a candle was alight in a jar.
The parents went into the smoke-filled room to rescue the boy, six, and girl, four, who stayed at the Royal Sussex County Hospital overnight on Saturday.
Thirty firefighters fought the blaze, which badly damaged the flat.
Naked flame
The two floors above were smoke-logged.
A spokesman for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said naked flames should never be used as night lights.
In Surrey, firefighters rescued a man from a burning bedsit at a building in Claygate early on Sunday morning.
The man was treated with oxygen after firefighters were called to the two-storey property in Torrington Close at 0220 GMT.
An investigation is under way into the cause of the blaze.
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