A FAMILY of four was rescued from their blazing Derbyshire home after a neighbour burst into the house to raise the alarm and lead them to safety through the smoke and flames.
The parents and their two young children were taken to the Royal Derby Hospital after the fire broke out at the house in Cross Side, Clifton, near Ashbourne, on Wednesday night.
Next-door neighbour Anthony Hall spotted the flames in a woodpile outside the front door.
He said he started throwing things at the lounge window in an attempt to get the family's attention, and shouting at them to escape.
"It really didn't look like much to begin with," he said, "so I just tried to warn them by picking up anything I could find and throwing it at the window.
"It was quite late at night though, so I was worried they had already gone to bed and wouldn't hear me."
Mr Hall said he was surprised at how fast the fire started to spread.
"The fire took hold really quickly and within seconds it was literally burning down the house, so I raced round the side, jumped over the fence and got in through the patio door," he said.
"There was so much smoke billowing out, I was really scared, and I had a 'should I, shouldn't I' moment, but I just decided to go for it."
The house was full of thick black smoke, and Mr Hall, struggling to breathe, realised he needed to get the family out quickly.
He closed the downstairs doors so the fire would not spread, and ran upstairs and shouted to the family to get out.
By now the family was awake, and were out of their bedrooms, but Mr Hall said they did not appear to realise their house was on fire.
He said: "I kept telling them there was a fire but I'm not sure it sunk in straight away. In fact, David, the dad, told his daughter Abbie to go back to her room."
The 46-year-old neighbour grabbed Abbie and got her downstairs and into the garden, and everyone followed.
Mr Hall said he could not believe how quickly the blaze took hold.
He said: "One moment it looked like nothing and the next minute the whole downstairs was alight.
"The fire service were amazing. They arrived within minutes."
A fire service spokesman said crews spent more than an hour tackling the flames at the property after being called there shortly before 11pm on Wednesday.
A police spokesman said: "At this stage it is not looking like there are any suspicious circumstances but we are working with the fire service to find out the exact circumstances of how the fire started."
He said nobody was hurt and that the family were taken to hospital as a precaution.
