CHIPPENHAM NEWS: A FAMILY of five cheated death when a blaze ripped through their loft on Thursday night.

The fire, at Sheppards Close in Pewsham, Chippenham, gutted the attic space, burning personal possessions and has forced the family to abandon their home.

Fire chiefs say Cathy Sett, her partner Pete Carroll and their sons David, 24, Sam, 17, and fifteen-year-old Oliver, were lucky the fire started at 9pm, before they were asleep, as the lack of smoke alarms in the building may have allowed the fire to spread through the house undetected.

Jack Nicholson, watch manager at Chippenham fire station, said: "I think we must say they were lucky to be alive. There were no smoke detectors in the loft and the whole point of these is to detect the smoke before it gets dangerous.

"As we are all well aware in two or three minutes the atmosphere can turn from breathable to poisonous.

"We always recommend households have a smoke detector on every level but very few houses do. This family was very lucky.

"At the moment it is very hard to tell what caused the fire but it seems to be an electrical fault and we have known cases when vermin in the loft have chewed through wires and started a fire."

The fire was first found when Ms Sett saw light coming from the loft and, realising it was a fire, rushed the children outside and called 999.

Minutes later her partner Peter Carroll, who owns a concrete company, arrived back to find his house ablaze.

He said: "I was walking back and all these cars were screeching up at the back of the house. People were saying a house was on fire and I realised it was my house.

"I ran into the house to see if there was anything I could do but there wasn't. I managed to grab some photos but the flames were coming through the loft hatch by then.

Firefighters from Chippenham and Calne arrived on the scene to extinguish the blaze and neighbours rallied round the family.

Mr Carroll said: "One guy jumped through the hedge and grabbed me to stop me going back inside.

"It was a good job I didn't go inside again, a fireman said in a couple of minutes the whole roof would have collapsed.

"All the neighbours were brilliant they were asking 'what can we do?'. They were offering to do the washing and put us up."

The loft will take five months to rebuild and now the family are looking for somewhere to rent before they can move back home.

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire.