A TEN-year-old girl had a lucky escape when a faulty electric blanket set fire to her bed in the early hours of Monday morning.
The girl had been asleep when the blanket caught fire, sending smoke billowing across the first floor of the house in Ash Road, Sandiway.
Her sisters, aged eight months and five years, were also rescued after smoke alarms alerted their mum Alison Keeling and her partner James Park-Smith who were sleeping downstairs.
Alison said the whole family were lucky to be alive after smoke alarms woke them all in time. She said: 'The fire was at the bottom of Shannon's bed, she felt it touch her feet, and could smell smoke, but she had been in a deep sleep and carried on dozing.
'We have two smoke alarms and by the time the second one went off you couldn't see anything upstairs, it was just full of smoke.
'James and I were both woken up by the alarms and he dashed to rescue the children while I telephoned the fire brigade. He rescued Shannon first and then woke the other two children up and brought them all downstairs.
'The two of us then went upstairs to put the fire out. It was still smoking quite a lot when the fire brigade arrived. We all feel very lucky to be alive.'
They were taken to Leighton Hospital where Shannon was treated for blisters to her feet.
Northwich fire brigade watch manager Steve Burrage said smoke alarms saved the day.
'The 10-year-old had turned the electric blanket on in the night because she was feeling cold and it set alight to the mattress,' he said.
'Thankfully the smoke activated the alarms and they all managed to get out in time. We could have lost the whole family if it hadn't been for the smoke alarms.
'This emphasises the need to have smoke alarms fitted and have electric blankets regularly checked.'
