Fire family woken by baby cough

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A family are "extremely lucky" to be alive after the parents were woken by the sound of their baby coughing as a fire took hold in their Dorset home.

Baby Yasmin Davis woke parents Richard Davis and Hannah Jones as a fire swept through their flat in Hillman Road, Poole, early on Saturday morning.

The blaze gutted the kitchen of the first floor property and smoke engulfed the rest.

The family were all "black from the smoke", including the baby.

Fire crews found the couple and 18-month-old Yasmin on a landing. They were taken to hospital but later discharged.

'Panic struck'

The fire had been so intense, the kitchen boiler melted off the wall, a fire service spokesman said.

"I heard Yasmin calling for what I thought was a cry for a bottle," Mr Davis said.

The fire was so intense the kitchen was completely gutted

"As I got the bottle from the bedroom, I came into the kitchen and felt a very hot heat on the door.

"That was when the panic struck.

"My daughter saved our lives. If it wasn't for her screaming and waking me up, two minutes later who knows what would have happened."

Mr Davis and Ms Jones now want people to learn from their mistakes because alarms fitted in the flat were not working.

"The adverts on TV say about the smoke alarms and 'put them in', but who listens?" Ms Jones said.

"We want other families to know what they need to do to save lives. We were lucky. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

'Very, very lucky'

She said to her daughter: "If it hadn't had been for you, we wouldn't have survived."

Yasmin woke her parents by coughing in her smoke-logged bedroom

A fire service spokesman said crews from Westbourne and Poole "could not believe they were not witnessing three more fire deaths".

Watch manager Adrian Adams said: "We were called to the address and found the occupants on the landing - they were all black from the smoke - including the baby.

"It seems they were woken by the sound of the baby coughing and this undoubtedly saved their lives.

"There was no smoke detection in the home that we could see so they were very, very lucky indeed.

"I cannot stress how important it is to have working smoke alarms in your home," he added.