A five-year-old boy who suffered 90 per cent burns in a house fire has died.

Jason Baillie was rescued from the fire in Thornaby, near Stockton on Tuesday but lost his fight for life last night.

His grandmother, Susan Baillie, who was 40, was pronounced dead at the scene of the fire on Havelock Street.

Fire officers fought through intense heat to rescue Jason who sustained 90 per cent burns. The little boy was given specialised care at the intensive care ward at Newcastle General Hospital where his mother, 22-year-year-old Joanne Baillie, held a bedside vigil.

Joanne Baillie had herself received treatment for burns and smoke inhalation after escaping the fire through an upstairs window. Another man, aged 47, also escaped by leaping from the window but has remained at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Messages had been left to Jason at the scene of the fire, some by children. One said: "Thinking of you, Jason."

Ann Tebbutt, headmistress at Jason's Harwood Infant School, said all the children and staff were "deeply upset."