BANDAGED: Ian Smith, his burnt hand covered up, stands in the bedroom in which the fire started
Teenager Amy Lobl returned from the Glastonbury Festival on Monday to find her bedroom had been destroyed by fire.
But her mother Linda Smith is just relieved her daughter was 50 miles away when the blaze broke out as she fears Amy would not have survived the fire that started in her attic bedroom.
She and her husband Ian are also glad their listed farmhouse in Biddestone is fitted with sophisticated safety equipment that gave them time to escape the fire along with twin nine-year-old sons Ben and Tom and five bed and breakfast guests.
In addition to electronic smoke alarms, Home Farm, Hart Lane, is fitted with heavy fire doors to meet safety standards for bed and breakfast accommodation.
Amy, 17, an A-level pupil at King Edward's School, in Bath, said: "Everything has gone, there is nothing left. I have lost photos and my geography project."
Her mother said: "I'm feeling a conflict of emotions at the minute because we have just lost so much after spending four years renovating the house and Amy has lost all of her possessions, but I am relieved that she wasn't at home, in her room.
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"If it wasn't for the alarms I don't think we would be here now and the house definitely would not be here. I also think Ian did a great job trying to put out the fire.
"If it wasn't for the fire door leading to the attic rooms I'm sure the whole house would have gone up in flames or been ruined by the smoke."
The fire, believed to have been caused by an electrical fault, broke out in Amy's room at around 4am on Monday and smoke quickly spread to the two other attic rooms, used as the family's living quarter.
Mr and Mrs Smith were woken by the smoke alarms.
Mrs Smith got her twin sons from their room and alerted the five guests while her husband tried to fight the fire with an extinguisher.
He suffered minor burns and blistering to his hand. He was given medical attention by an ambulance crew.
He said: "You don't realise how much smoke is caused until you are trying to fight a fire. Twice I had to leave it because I thought if I don't leave now I'll never leave the house."
Corsham fire station watch manager Mark Unwin said: "If the fire alarm system hadn't gone off then somebody could have died."
The firefighters were on the scene for three-and-a-half hours. They suspect that the blaze started in a television, possibily because of a cable fault.
The family are now trying to recover what they can of their belongings that were in the attic and are hoping to soon start repairing the damaged attic room, that had only recently been recarpeted.
The six-bedroom farmhouse has belonged to Mr Smith's family for three generations since the start of the 20th century.
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