Mum's terror as blaze traps her son, 18 (From Gazette & Herald)

Mum's terror as blaze traps her son, 18

A TERRIFIED mother-of-four returned to her Ryedale home to find it plunged into darkness and filled with thick, black noxious smoke - with her son inside.

A smoke alarm, fitted only months previously, alerted neighbours to the blaze at the semi-detached three-bedroomed house in Goslipgate, Pickering.

Speaking about her ordeal, a visibly shaken Carole Jennings said: "I came home to find the house full of smoke.

''By then the electrics had already blown. My son John had come back from the pub, put something under the grill and had fallen asleep on the couch."

The 18-year-old had been celebrating landing an audition for a performing arts degree at Manchester Metropolitan University and his cousin's birthday.

"All I could think about was finding John. I had my two-year-old girl Faye-Louise with me so I told her to wait outside while I went in. I couldn't see because it was thick, black smoke," said Ms Jennings.

Ms Jennings banged her head in the panic and believes she was knocked unconscious, because in the confusion her toddler daughter ventured into the house trying to find her big brother.

At that point her 16-year-old daughter Tiffany came home, grabbed her sister and mum from the fume-filled house.

Minutes later retained firefighters from Pickering rescued John and put out the blaze. John was given oxygen therapy for smoke inhalation. The incident happened at 10.30pm on Sunday.

"My son could've died in here if I hadn't have come home when I had," said Ms Jennings, who also has a 19-year-old son Stephen, who doesn't live at the house. ''We just feel really lucky today. The damage to the house isn't as bad as we first thought and everyone's OK."

Divisional Officer Danny Westmoreland, based at Malton Fire Station, said: "This could have been really serious if it wasn't for the fact that we'd fitted a smoke alarm there a couple of months ago. We were called because the smoke alarm went off. The fire could have cost (the family) their lives ultimately."

A NORTON man escaped with cuts to his hands after a spark from a coal fire caused extensive damage to his home last night.

The blaze, at a terraced house in Mill Street, gutted the living room and caused severe damage to the staircase area and smoke damage to the remainder of the house, said a spokesman for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. It was at first thought that the man was still in the blazing house when Malton firefighters arrived but they discovered he had got out through the back door to safety.

Updated: 10:40 Wednesday, February 23, 2005