Smoke alarm may have saved mum and child Wymondham & Attleborough Mercury 24 UK 03 March 2008

Smoke alarms may have saved the lives of a mother and child who were trapped in a bedroom on Friday during a house fire.

The woman was alerted at about 10.30am by the sound of the alarms at the property in Edwin Close, Wymondham. She looked downstairs, saw smoke coming from one of the rooms below, and took refuge with her youngster in a back bedroom.

The fire service was alerted at 10.31am, and staff at the operational headquarters gave the mother advice over the phone as two fire crews from Wymondham raced to the scene.

The firefighters made contact with the pair at 10.42am, and led them to safety. The smoke was caused by a small fire which had burnt itself out before their arrival.

Before leaving, the crews did a leaflet drop to neighbouring homes providing fire safety advice.

Fire service spokesman Martin Barsby said: “This incident underlines the importance of smoke alarms. They do save lives.”