A mother today revealed the desperate moment she dropped her seven-week-old baby out of an upstairs window to save his life as fire ripped through her home in Telford.

Rebecca Coffey said she only woke up to realise her home was on fire when her baby son Finley cried for a feed. Miss Coffey said that the room was so black with smoke that she initially thought she had gone blind.

She said she quickly realised what was happening and got her three children, Chloe, six, Charlie, four, and baby Finley McCallum out of the window at the house in Teal Close, Brookside, before jumping herself, shattering her leg.

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Her partner Ian McCallum was in the lounge when the fire began in the same room, having fallen asleep in front of the TV last Friday.

He escaped, despite getting burned trying to save his family upstairs. The cause of the fire was a portable heater.

The family lost everything, including Chloe’s presents as she had celebrated her sixth birthday the day before. The couple say they are overwhelmed by the generosity of people who have donated toys, clothes and household and baby equipment.

Chloe and Charlie with some of the gifts donated following their ordeal

Miss Coffey described how she only woke up when Finley cried for a feed, as the home’s faulty electric smoke alarm failed to go off.

“It was black. I heard Finley crying and shouted Ian and then went and opened my window,” she told the Shropshire Star.

“I shouted for help and heard someone so I dropped Finley, but I could not see if anyone was there. I then grabbed the other two.”

Mr McCallum said: “I woke up and heard my partner shouting. I tried to get upstairs to them but the heat was too hot and burned my nose. I could not get to them. I got out through the kitchen window.”

Finley, who was born on November 20, fractured a bone in his skull. He was released from hospital last Saturday. The family are living in a bed and breakfast as they wait to be rehomed.

See also:

• Telford blaze mother recovering in hospital
• Heater is blamed for Telford house blaze
• Family flees Telford house blaze