Dog saves young mum from fire
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A young mum who leapt for her life from blazing inferno says she owes her life to her pet dog Lady.A fire swept through Alyshia Bennett's mid terrace cottage in Holmbush Road in the early hours of last Wednesday. As she settled for the night, her young Staffordshire Cross became increasingly agitated and refused to let her sleep. That act of devotion probably saved her life as Alyshia, 20, describes the horror that she faced.
"Lady, my dog, was going nuts,” she said. “This wasn't like her at all. To be honest, I was getting fed up with her disturbing me and shut her in the bedroom with me so that I could get some sleep. I only had a baby 14 weeks ago, and my mum had kindly arranged to look after him for the night so that I could have a break.
"However, she kept jumping up at me and it was then that I noticed how hot it was getting. I opened the bedroom door and was faced with flames half way up the stairs and a roomful of smoke.
“At first I thought it was a small fire but the flames and heat were getting more intense by the second."
"I started to panic and opened the bedroom window so that I could scream for help. Luckily, my next door neighbours heard me and rushed outside. He told me to get down on the floor as his wife ran to phone the Fire Brigade. By now I was completely terrified.
"Then he told me to jump for my life. I screamed that I had my dog and I wasn't going anywhere without her. With that, he told me to drop her to him, which I did. Thankfully, he caught her safely.
"At that moment the fire burst threw into the room and I literally jumped for my life. As I got to the window there was a huge blast and my hair caught fire, and as I hit the floor I felt the bones in my feet break, but once again my neighbours dragged me to safety.
"Thanks to my dog and the heroism of my neighbours, who themselves lost everything in the fire, I wouldn't be here now. I owe them my life."
The fire, which was believed to be caused by an electrical fault was reported at 1.37am last Wednesday. Four appliances attended including an aerial platform from Truro. The blaze ripped through the communal loft space of the terrace of five cottages, gutting three and severely damaging the others. The main road was closed to through traffic for nearly eight hours causing severe disruption to early morning rush hour traffic.
Senior Fire Officer Lee Griffin said "This was a major incident. Thankfully, a quick thinking resident alerted us and assisted the escape of a young female resident. The communal loft space was partially fire blocked which slowed the ingress of the fire through the loft space. This was a particularly difficult fire that thankfully didn't cause a loss of life. Our investigators are continuing with a detailed search of the property."
