A MOTHER has spoken of how her family escaped a fire while they were sleeping – and the worry of whether her daughter was still alive.

Rachel and Simon Tolcher, from Southway, were lucky to flee after their gas boiler caught alight in their kitchen at just after 5.30am yesterday morning.

They immediately fought to get their children, Luke, aged 17, Brooke, aged three, and Tyler, aged 17 months, out of their smoke-filled home in Saunders Walk.

Rachel said: "I didn't know if the kids were still alive, Tyler came out coughing but Brooke was just laid there in bed and I thought she was gone."

Originally Rachel awoke to go to the bathroom and started coughing, her eyes were stinging and there was a bad smell so she ran to get her husband Simon.

"It was horrible, it makes me feel sick thinking about it and I'm still in shock," Rachel added.

Simon was also in shock but leapt into action to help save his family: "I was fumbling around in the thick black smoke trying to find the house keys because I had to get the kids out," he said.

"You can just imagine how people get stuck inside and can't get out. You just can't breathe, there's no air at all and it's really hard to see anything.

"We just got the kids to close their eyes, we covered their faces and got them out."

Fire appliances from Crownhill and Camels Head attended the scene and sent the family to Derriford Hospital as they were suffering from smoke inhalation.

Crew Commander Higman, from Crownhill fire station, said: "The fire had the potential to be a life threatening serious incident.

"It really could have been quite nasty so I need to stress the importance of having working fire alarms.

"The fire message is also to check your kitchen door is shut before you go to bed and have a bed-time routine to check everything is done.

"Now we'll send out fire safety packs to people in the area relevant to this incident to ensure this doesn't happen again."