Christmas Day candle blaze drama for family

Dec 26 2007

A FAMILY-of-five fled their home after a decorative candle sparked a Christmas Day fire.

The alarm was raised when one of the children, an 11-year-old boy, woke up at around 4am and went to ask his mother if he could open his presents.

His mother smelled the toxic smoke coming from their blazing TV and dialled 999.

Fire crews were quickly at the family home in Stanley Gardens, Orrell Park, Liverpool, to stop the flames from spreading from the living room.

When firefighters went upstairs the family, including the 11-year- old boy and two girls aged five and six, were all unhurt.

After making the scene safe downstairs, fire crews cleaned the bikes which had been bought as presents for the children.

Today Aintree fire station manager Barry Davies, who attended the blaze, issued a safety warning about fire alarms, which were not installed in the house.

He said: “More than ever at this time of year we cannot stress enough the importance of fire alarms being in homes.

“Thankfully the little boy woke his mother in this situation and she was able to smell smoke, but this could have been far more serious if that hadn’t happened.

“The message needs to get home to everyone in Merseyside. We could have been talking about a tragedy.

“Luckily, the children still had a Christmas Day and their presents weren’t ruined. We were there very quickly and able to get an engine up the road despite the double parked cars which made it extremely difficult.

“We would have had problems getting the engine up the road if we had needed to more water to stop the flames, and I hope that makes people think about the way they park.”

Watch manager Davies said it appeared that a candle in a Christmas decoration melted on to the top of a television set and then burned through it.

The ground floor living room was severely damaged by fire and the remainder of the ground floor was badly damaged by smoke.