A MOTHER who was alerted to a fire in the kitchen by her eight-year-old son was counting her blessings this week.

Beverley Pullan, of Duke Street, Skipton, was in the bedroom looking after her one-year-old daughter, Emily, at about 9.30pm on Wednesday when she heard her son Matthew shouting for help.

He had been watching television in the lounge when he saw smoke and flames coming from the kitchen.

Beverley, who works as a care officer with the mentally handicapped in Skipton, managed to get herself and the children out and phoned the fire brigade from her neighbours' house.

She then called her husband Gary, who owns a transport business and had been working in Wolverhampton. He rushed home to see his family who all escaped without injuries.

Gary said: "I was so shocked when Beverley rang me, but when I knew her and the kids were alright that was all I was bothered about.

"The fire has totally ruined the kitchen and the rest of the house is smoke damaged. The flames got so high at one point that they broke the windows of the back bedroom."

Gary added he had been told by firemen the blaze had probably started because of a faulty wire in the kitchen fusing, which caught fire and ignited a pile of ironing by the side of it.

Stuart Stoney, Skipton's assistant divisional fire officer, said it had taken a crew more than 20 minutes to get the blaze under control, and the brigade was there for one and half hours clearing up.

The couple, who have lived at the house in Duke Street for seven years, are now staying with Beverley's mother.

When asked how his son had coped with the fire, Gary said: "He's just truck crazy is Matthew so he loved it when the fire engines turned up!"

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