Children rescued from house blaze

Apr 17 2007 By Anna Jeys, Birmingham Mail

TWO young children had to be rescued from an upstairs bedroom after it became engulfed with flames in a blaze in Birmingham.

Fire-fighters were called to the semi-detached house in Ingoldsby Road in Northfield shortly after 10.40 last night after reports of a fire.

The 11-year-old and eight-year-old children were thought to be dragged out of the burning bedroom by a parent after they noticed flames coming from the bedroom window. Both children managed to escape serious injury but were treated for smoke inhalation by paramedics at the scene.

Watch commander Pete Baker, from Northfield fire station, said the fire started after one of the children had been playing with a lighter.

All four adults and four children who were in the house managed to escape the flames before firefighters arrived.

Watch Commander Baker said: "There was a lot of heat damage and quite a lot of damage to the bedroom.

"One of the children said he had set fire to a piece of paper which he thought had gone out and then went to sleep.

"It can have disastrous consequences when children play with matches or lighters and this could have been an example of that.

"If one of the adults in the house had not noticed the flames we could have been dealing with child fatalities."