A woman and her teenage grandson fled to safety after waking to find their Stafford home in flames today.

Marjorie Reed and grandson Damian were left with only the clothes they stood up in after the fire gutted the ground floor of the terraced house in Meadow Road.

Mrs Reed, aged 60, and 15-year-old Damian, a pupil at Fair Oak School in Rugeley, said they owed their lives to the smoke alarm, and thanked neighbours Amanda and Adrian Soper, who took them in and called the fire brigade.

Read the full story in the Express & Star. 

A woman and her teenage grandson fled to safety after waking to find their Stafford home in flames today.

Marjorie Reed and grandson Damian were left with only the clothes they stood up in after the fire gutted the ground floor of the terraced house in Meadow Road.

Mrs Reed, aged 60, and 15-year-old Damian, a pupil at Fair Oak School in Rugeley, said they owed their lives to the smoke alarm, and thanked neighbours Amanda and Adrian Soper, who took them in and called the fire brigade.

Mr Soper then got a hose and sprayed cold water on Mrs Reed’s car to prevent the flames spreading to it.

Crew Commander Karl Wood-Emery, based at Stafford fire station, said when he arrived on the scene flames were leaping out of the downstairs window.

“It looked quite spectacular,” he said. “We had two appliances from Stafford in attendance and four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus went in the tackle the blaze.”

Mr Wood-Emery said it appeared to have been started by a computer monitor overheating and there were no suspicious circumstances.

Once again the importance of smoke alarms in full working order was highlighted. Crews were out there for two hours but the downstairs living area was gutted and the upstairs severely smoke damaged.

Mrs Reed said she had gone to bed shortly before midnight and fallen asleep when she was alerted by the smoke alarm.

“I went downstairs and saw the curtains in flames,” she said. “I shouted Damian, then we ran out and came round to Amanda and Adrian’s.

“They have been brilliant to us but I don’t know what we are going to do next. We have nowhere to live, no clothes, no money, no cards, nothing.

“It all either went up in flames or was so badly damaged by smoke it is no longer any use. Rather ironically, the smoke alarm went off the night before while I was cooking and I said to Damian ‘well, at least we know it’s working’.”

Mrs Soper said they also heard the smoke alarm going off at about 12.15am.

“The next was Marjorie hammering on the front door, shouting and screaming,” she said. “We took them and while Adrian went to see what he could do I called the fire brigade.”

Firefighters also had to check Mr and Mrs Soper’s home to make sure the fire had not spread through the roof.