Last updated 13:25, Friday, 18 July 2008

A young mum-of-two is fighting for her life after a fire tore through her Carlisle home.

• Images: photos inside the house

Chris Hogarth

The woman, believed to be in her early 20s, was asleep at a house in Brook Street, off London Road, when the blaze broke out at around 1.20am today. Two neighbours made a brave rescue attempt but were beaten back by a wall of flames.

The woman was pulled from her bedroom by firefighters wearing breathing apparatus. She was taken to Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle where she is being treated for serious burns to around 50 per cent of her body and smoke inhalation.

Fire crews initially believed that her two and one-year-old toddlers were also inside the house, but it was later discovered they were spending the night with a relative.

Neighbour Chris Hogarth, 26, was asleep on his couch when he was woken by the sound of an elderly man trying to break down the door of the burning house.

Mr Hogarth said: “I ran down to help him and we kicked the door in. But as soon as we did, the flames came round the corner.

“I tried to go down to the floor and crawl in but there were flames everywhere. There were also mini explosions going off inside like there were deodorant cans or something.

“I couldn’t see where I was going – I didn’t even know where the stairs were.

“I had to just come back out and stand there in the street – I could hear a woman screaming. I felt awful.”

By this time, other neighbours had been woken and a concerned crowd grew. Next-door neighbour Michael Anderson, 24, was woken by his flatmate, Adam Beattie, 25, as the blaze blew out windows from the burning house. He said: “We got out into the street and we saw it was badly ablaze.”

Mr Anderson said a man believed to be the partner of the injured woman appeared on the scene at the height of the inferno.
“He must have been out drinking or something. He was hysterical,” he said.

The man was led away from the scene before the woman was pulled from the house.

Both floors of the family home were ravaged by the fire which devoured carpets, ceilings and melted the front door frame. Workmen were pulling the wet and charred remains of the family’s furniture and possessions from the house this morning.

Fire chiefs and police are investigating the cause of the fire, but are not treating it as suspicious and believe an electrical fault may be to blame.

Carlisle fire station watch manager Cliff Harding said it took three appliances over an hour to get the blaze under control.

“You can well imagine the state of mind of the firefighters thinking there were children in there. It was challenging too because we had the possibility of a gas leak because of a meter nearby.”

The house had no smoke detectors fitted.

To arrange to have fire detectors fitted in your home call 0800 358477.