A TODDLER was taken to Alder Hey as his grandfather leapt from an upstairs window to escape a house blaze.

An aromatic candle sparked a massive fire which engulfed the bedrooms of Kevin and Lindy O'Neill’s home in Fernhill Close, Bootle, early yesterday morning.

Thick clouds of smoke drove two-year-old Callum, his mother Ann-Marie, aunt Emma and grandmother out of the home.

Trapped upstairs, grandfather Kevin made sure his son Dan had made it down the stairs before jumping from his bedroom window at the back of the terrace house they all share.

Distraught Miss O'Neill said: “Callum was rigid with fear and just shocked. I grabbed him and got out. We're lucky to be here.”

Callum was taken to Alder Hey at 7.20am but has been released.

Mr O’Neill and Dan also miraculously emerged without serious harm despite the 49-year-old grandparent’s leap.

Dan tumbled down the stairs suffering minor back injury and remains cheerful despite being left without any clothes as the flames claimed them all.

The family has now moved back to the blackened hulk that was once their home. British Red Cross are handing out emergency toiletries and clothing and Sefton Council is attempting to find them a temporary home.

Until then the O'Neills remain crammed into the living room of their badly smokelogged home.

Next door Wendy Moon, 42, who lives with three children, has also had to throw out mattresses and large amounts of clothes and toys.

“I just got everyone out and am so glad nobody has been hurt. But how am I going to replace everything?

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