Neighbours rescue children after hearing smoke alarm
Published: July 11, 2007
TWO neighbours have been hailed as heroes after rescuing four children from a house fire.
The youngsters were asleep upstairs when fire broke out in the kitchen of the terraced house in Blenheim Road, Breightmet.
The blaze is believed to have started when a family friend, babysitting for the youngsters, fell asleep while grilling food.
Alerted by the sound of a smoke alarm, neighbours Julie Pritchard and Wesley Kilburn broke into the smoke-filled house and carried the sleeping children to safety. Alisha McKay, aged eight, her sisters, Annalise, aged three, and Casey, aged two, and their friend Kyle Smith, aged five, were last night none the worse for their ordeal.
The babysitter also got out of the house safely.
Mrs Pritchard told how she discovered the fire late on Tuesday evening.
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She said: “My dog wouldn’t settle. She was acting strangely so I decided to take her for a walk.
“We’d only gone a few yards when I thought I could hear a smoke alarm, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
“I knocked on my neighbour Wes’s door and then we realised the alarm was coming from the house in between us.
“We pushed the door open and saw the kitchen was full of smoke. I ran up to the bedroom and carried the oldest girl down.
“Wes went up and got another kiddie and then I got the other one.
“The little lad was asleep on the sofa with the babysitter. The main thing is that everybody got out of that house in one piece.”
The girls’ father, Grant McKay, said: “I’d left the children in the care of aa family friend.
“I think we’re all still in shock but the kids are fine. I can’t express enough gratitude to Julie and Wes.”
A spokesman for Bolton North fire station said: “The two neighbours who rushed into the house and carried the children out saved the day.
“It’s fortunate that this family had two smoke alarms. If they had not had them, things could have turned out a lot worse.”
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