Sleeping family saved by dog

BURNT OUT: The scene of Sunday's blaze in Marton. Photo/Stuart Munro

A barking dog saved a family of four when their Marton house caught fire in the early hours of Sunday.

Kathryn Collins, who lives next door to the Lower High St house, is understood to have been woken about 5am by her little poodle-cross dog Tydus barking furiously.

She told him to be quiet but he carried on barking, and when she went to investigate she saw flames coming from the neighbours' house.

She woke her son, who raced across and banged on the windows to alert the family of two adults and two pre-school children sleeping inside.

He helped get the family out one of the windows, reports said. He was just in time because the concrete tile roof of the house collapsed soon after.

Peter Saywell, who lives across the street, said flames were "miles above the roof" by the time he was woken by fire sirens.

Marton firefighters arrived with two appliances and were there for nearly two hours.

The fire started in the front porch of the house and moved into the lounge, Marton Chief Fire Officer Paul Whitehead said. Luckily, the door between the lounge and the rest of the house was closed.

The family had been in Marton for three months, living in the house owned by Canterbury Meat Packers. It had two smoke alarms but neither of them contained batteries.

Mr Whitehead hoped people hearing about the fire would take note and keep their own smoke alarms working.

Because it started in the front porch, the fire was deemed suspicious and it was investigated by fire risk management officer John Hotter. He discovered that it was caused by an electrical fault.