A MOTHER and two three-year-old children escaped unharmed from a rented house in Whitefield after a fire broke out in the kitchen.

The family, who had only recently moved into the Glendevon Street property, fled as the cooker burst into the flames at 1.15pm on Wednesday (Sept 15).

A neighbour managed to douse the cooker with a wet cloth and closed the kitchen door before firefighters quickly extinguished the fire using damp tea-towels. The oven was destroyed while the kitchen area was heavily smoke- logged.