A QUICK-thinking little girl saved a family of seven after her brother who is fascinated by fire set the bedroom alight.

Gemma Osbaldeston, five, was sleeping downstairs in the house in Lister Street, Accrington, and spotted the smoke and flames when she went upstairs to the toilet.

She immediately raised the alarm and helped to get her seven-year-old sister Sarah, her brothers and baby Aaron out of the house, while dad David fought the fire with buckets of water.

Her mum, Andrea, said they owed their lives to her.

The blaze was started by her brother, four-year-old David, at 6am on Friday.

He had found a lighter and had been playing with it in the room he shares with his two-year-old brother Dillon.

The fire destroyed the beds, damaged paintwork and plaster, all their clothes and bed linen and filled the house with smoke.

The family said they had been having problems with David, who had already been warned by his nursery teacher after setting a book alight last year. David was reprimanded by the police and was set to visit fire officers for an explanation about the dangers of playing with fire.

Andrea said: "When Gemma told me there was a fire in David's bedroom I have never run upstairs so fast in my life.

"David and Dillon were sitting at the top of the stairs and I just screamed for everyone to get out.

"I opened the bedroom door and was hit in the face by black smoke."

Their next-door neighbour telephoned the fire brigade but the blaze was out when they arrived.

Andrea said: "David just seems to be going through a stage where he is absolutely fascinated by fire.

"He just sits and watches it.

"He's had a good talking to, but it doesn't seem to do any good."

She added: "We sleep downstairs and would never have noticed the fire until it was too late if it hadn't been for Gemma. She saved the day."

The family has contacted social services and have been told they must wait until next week for money for new beds and household goods.

They were planning to stay with Andrea's mother in Hawskworth Road, Accrington.

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