A Mid Wales family has been given £1,000 to help rebuild their lives after they were forced to flee from their bedroom window as fire tore through their home.

Alison Allport, her husband Daniel and their children Noah, three, and Ewan, one, were woken at their home in Dolfor, near Newtown, on January 12 when smoke started filling their bedroom.

In a bid to save his family from what the fire service have described as near certain death, Mr Allport leaped out of the first floor bedroom window, before returning with a ladder and rescuing the rest of the family.

Specialist children’s firm Mama & Papas has awarded the family £1,000 in vouchers to help them buy new clothes for the children and decorate their bedroom.

Mrs Allport said the terrifying ordeal was something that she would never forget.

She said: “We were woken up by the fire alarm and by this point the fire was already tearing through the downstairs of our home.

“Daniel ran to the top of the stairs but there was no way out and I was left panicking. But he decided to jump out of the bedroom window and ran down the road and luckily he found a ladder in somebody’s garden. He then ran back and rescued the children and me from the bedroom window and carried us away to safety as the fire service arrived.”

Mrs Allport said the house was ruined inside and is now being completely renovated and the donation from Mamas & Papas would be a great help.

She also hailed her husband as “a hero” and said she had been told without his actions there could have been four fatalities.

“He is a hero,” she said. “He wouldn’t like to admit to it, but he is and I am so proud of him. Our youngest was only nine months at the time, you just don’t expect it to happen to you. It is a cliche but it is true.”

The family was nominated for the Mamas & Papas award by one of Mrs Allport’s sisters, who wrote: “The fire was blazing downstairs so my brother-in-law bravely jumped out of the bedroom window and rescued the rest of the family.

“The firefighters said there could have easily been four fatalities and I’m so thankful for my brother in law’s bravery in getting my sister and nephews out safely.

“Thankfully the house is still intact but it all needs gutting, as nearly every room and everything in them needs replacing.”

By Andrew Morris