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Wednesday, December 03, 2008, 12:12
Her mother, Kerrie Perkins, said if it hadn't been for her daughter both her children could have died.
Little Ellie was playing upstairs with her brother Connor, three, when she noticed smoke coming from the bedroom lamp.
She ran downstairs to tell her mum who was cleaning the house.
Mrs Perkins said she rushed to the bedroom and by the time she had got there the lamp was ablaze.
She said her son had been playing with the light and was stuffing tissues under the light shade, which had caused the fire.
Mrs Perkins, who lives in Peasedown St John, said: "He didn't realise what he was doing.
"When I got there it was all on fire. I reached for the plug socket to unplug the lamp but I couldn't reach it and the tissues were everywhere.
"By this time the bed had caught fire too and it was burning quite quickly.
"I grabbed the children and left the room, closing the door behind me."
Mrs Perkins, 30, took her children outside and called the fire brigade.
She said: "I didn't want the children to be cold so I knocked on my neighbour's door so they could go inside the warm."
Mrs Perkins said after her neighbour answered the door he ran straight over to her house to put out the fire using a garden hose.
Carpet fitter Matt Clement said: "I was watching TV when I heard them banging on the door, and when they told me what had happened I couldn't quite believe it.
"I went down to have a look and Kerrie was shouting at me not to go in.
"But I thought I have to put it out. I couldn't just leave it and wait for the fire brigade.
"I did not think it would be as bad as it was, but when I opened the bedroom door everything was on fire.
"The mattress was alight and so was the bedside cabinet, so I used the hose to put out all the flames. I managed to get it all out before the fire brigade arrived.
"I didn't think too much about what I was doing at the time. I was helping out a friend and I would like to think that if it had happened to me they would have done the same."
Mrs Perkins said she was grateful to her daughter and her neighbour, and without them events could have been a lot worse.
She said: "If my daughter hadn't come down and told me, or if my son had been playing on his own, he may not be here today.
"It is the most scared I have ever been in my life. I thought the whole house was going to blow.
"If it wasn't for my neighbour most of the upstairs of my house would have been destroyed. He is my hero as well.
"I was waiting for a big explosion because there are so many flammable items in a bedroom.
"I'm glad I got my children out as quickly as I could because you can replace a bedroom but you can't replace your family."
Mrs Perkins said she hoped her experience would be an example to people with bedroom lamps and make them aware of the dangers.
"Since the fire I have spoken to lots of people who say they often cover their lamp with clothes or a book and nobody realises how dangerous it is," she said.
"Everyone has a bedroom lamp, but I have now thrown away all of mine."
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