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Family flees to safety in house fire
Monday 20th February 2012, 10:59AM GMT.
The family’s fire hit-home in Chestnut Meadow
A mother and her two young children fled to safety after a blaze ripped through the lounge of their home in south Shropshire.
The family is lucky to be alive after the blaze at the property in Bucknell, which was tackled by 20 firefighters. Caroline Sansom was woken up by her smoke alarm and found 5ft flames coming from near a bookcase when she went to investigate.
She ran upstairs to grab her two children, Oscar, eight, and Grace, seven, and they fled outside to safety on Saturday at about 6.15am.
But Mrs Sansom, 40, went back into the semi-detached house in Bucknell when she realised the family dog was still inside.
A family escaped from this fire-damage house in Bucknell
Her husband, Chris, who works as a paramedic in south Shropshire, arrived home after a 12-hour shift to find four fire appliances outside his home,
He said the smoke alarm had saved the lives of his family.
He said: “The smoke alarm saved the day. It woke up my wife and she got the children out and the dog out and phoned 999.
“It was an electrical fault of some description in the front room.”
Mr Sansom said: “My wife went downstairs to see what was going on when the alarm went off and 5ft flames were coming from where the bookcase was.
“Luckily the doors to the front room were shut at the time so it stopped quite a bit of smoke.
“She went back upstairs and grabbed the children then realised the dog was in the house.”
Mr Sansom said there was smoke damage to other parts of the property but the fire itself had been contained to the front room.
He said: “I feel very lucky that my wife and children got out safely. Everybody should make sure they have smoke alarms and they work.
“It’s the smoke that kills, rather than the fire,” he added.
Firefighters remained at the scene in Chestnut Meadow until about 9am.
Mr Sansom praised the efforts of the firefighters.
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