Tot crawls to safety as blaze starts in his cot (From Barry And District News)

Tot crawls to safety as blaze starts in his cot

A MUM-OF-FOUR is counting her blessings after her baby son managed to escape from his burning cot by crawling out of the holes left by the flames.

One-year-old Tristan crawled out of his room with two-year-old brother Callum, who had managed to get hold of a lighter to start the fire in the cot.

The baby"s screams alerted the family to the fire, which started just after 8am on Monday.

Sarah Hoskins, her partner Matthew Hobbs and their four children all escaped.

When Sarah, aged 25, heard the baby screaming she realised something was wrong at her home in Queen Street, Barry.

Her sons were in the room they share, but made it to the landing where Matthew, also 25, found them.

He ran into the room to put out the fire with buckets of water, but the smoke was already so thick in the house that daughters Tammy, aged eight, and four-year-old Destiny were only just able to get out of their rooms.

Two fire engines, ambulance crews and police attended the scene.

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All four children needed treatment in hospital - Tristan for a minor burn where his baby-grow had melted onto his leg and for smoke inhalation, Callum for smoke inhalation, and the two girls for shock.

The girls were released later that day, but the boys were kept in overnight before being released on Tuesday. Matthew was also kept in overnight after inhaling smoke.

Mum Sarah knows the family had a lucky escape.

She said: "If the fire had spread from the bedroom the whole house could have gone up, because there are polystyrene tiles on the ceiling.

"The girls could not see in their room and I could not see for all the smoke. It was very scary.

"It has made me realise how important it is to have smoke alarms in my home.

"There was nothing left of the cot.

"We would not have been able to get out of the house if we had left it much longer.

"I think we would have been lucky to get out at all.

"The fire has made me rethink the way I look at life," she added.

"I"ve always thought that you never know, if you go out of the door you might get knocked down by a bus tomorrow - but I didn"t expect anything to happen in my home.

"It is the first time my children have been to hospital because they were all born at home, so they were quite apprehensive.

"The next morning the girls went to school, because we wanted to carry on as normal."

Sarah said they have now fitted smoke alarms in each bedroom.