Four Escape House Fire

10 November 2013, 10:41 | Updated: 10 November 2013, 11:15

A mum and three children have had to go to hospital after being rescued from a house fire in Bedfordshire by police who were nearby.

The Bedfordshire Police officers were able to put out the fire at the house on Cluny Way, Arlesey. They also rescued a woman who had called 999 to say her family were trapped in an upstairs bedroom because of a fire downstairs.

The fire broke out in the kitchen of the house just after 12.30am on Sunday 10 November 2013.

The Fire Service were on route but still a few minutes away, and while the three children had been lowered to safety from an upstairs window to a member of the public who had bravely come to their aid, the mother was still trapped. When officers, who were close by, arrived they forced entry to the house before putting out the fire in the kitchen, enabling the woman to escape unharmed.

Both police officers suffered the effects of breathing in smoke, but they did not require medical treatment. The woman and her family were not harmed. An investigation into what caused the fire is now under way.

Inspector Jim Goldsmith who deployed the officers to the fire said: “This was a selfless act by the officers and the member of the public who also came to this family’s rescue.

"The Fire Service were just minutes away but the officers thought nothing of breaking in and putting out the blaze with no thought to their own safety. It doesn’t bear thinking about what might have happened had they not acted so bravely.”