A QUICK-THINKING father lowered his young children to safety from a first-floor bedroom as fire spread through their North-East home.

Firefighters said Bryan Dougall and his family would have died had they remained in their house another ten minutes.

Mr Dougall, partner Jessica Miller, 21, and their children, Hayden- Lee, one, and Angel-Louise, who is three next week, were all asleep in the master bedroom with a 25-year-old friend of Ms Miller’s when the fire started at about 4.45am on Sunday.

The fire service is investigating the cause, but Mr Dougall believes it may have been started by an ember from the open fire in the living room falling on to the carpet.

The 31-year-old heard a noise, but thought it was his mobile phone and drifted back to sleep.

Seconds later, he woke again and realised the noise was the smoke alarm in the family’s twobedroomed terraced home in Church Street, Howden-le-Wear, near Bishop Auckland.

He said: “I opened the bedroom door and all I could see was dense black smoke and an orange glow at the bottom of the stairs. My first thought was to try to get to the front door, but I realised that was near where the fire was.”

Mr Dougall said his Army training kicked in and he closed and blocked the door to stop the smoke getting in, then lowered his partner’s friend and their two children out of the first-floor bedroom window.

Firefighters then rescued Mr Dougall and Ms Miller. He said: “This all just shows how imperative a working smoke alarm is. Without it, they would be or- ganising five funerals today.”

All five were taken to University Hospital of Durham, in Durham City, to be treated for smoke inhalation and were released later that day.

Mr Dougall said he hopes to be back in the house, which was gutted, for Christmas.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service’s protection and prevention manager Steve Chicken said: “Clearly, if it hadn’t been for the alarm we could have been dealing with a tragedy rather than a near miss.”

Anyone with furniture they can give to the family is asked to call The Northern Echo’s Bishop Auckland office on 01388-602232 or email duncan.leatherdale@ nne.co.uk