Baby saved as family flees from house fire

A family of seven had to flee for their safety after their semi-detached house in a Wolverhampton street caught fire.

Witnesses heard a crash and felt the whole building shake.

Stuart and Joanne Harriman, aged 27 and 21, had to rescue their 14 month old baby from their house in McLean Road, Oxley, before the flames engulfed the first floor of the property. The couple, who live with another four family members at the address, say they are counting their blessings after they all managed to escape from the house unscathed.

Mrs Harriman said: “One minute I was sitting in the living room watching TV and Stuart had just popped out to the shops, and the next thing we heard this big bang from upstairs and the house shook.”I grabbed our baby Kian from a downstairs room and we ran outside as fast as we could and called the fire brigade. The fire was pouring out of the upstairs floor.

Mr Harriman said: “I was just walking up to the house and I heard the bang and everyone ran outside. It was unbelievable, the house looks in a bad state but the good news is that nobody is hurt.

“It could have been worse because we had our one-year old baby in the house. None of us are hurt but we are all pretty shook up.”

There are four other family members who live at the house, Joanne’s brother Paul Davies, aged 18, sister Kerry Davies, aged 20, mother Elaine, aged 47, and father Joseph, 50.

The fire investigation unit is examining how it started, with faulty wiring in an upstairs bedroom thought to be the cause.