A MOTHER who woke next to her young daughter in a blazing room surveyed her fire-ravaged flat today and said: "I'm just glad to be alive."

Lisa Yates, of Cross Barn Grove, Darwen, vowed never to use candles in her bedroom again and said she didn't care that her furniture and clothes were burned and her flat damaged.

She said: "It's nothing. I'm just so glad that we are alive and that Molly wasn't hurt."

Lisa fell asleep next to her two-year-old daughter Molly at about 1am on Saturday, leaving a small nightlight burning in a thin metal container on a radio in the corner of the room.

At 2.30am, she awoke to see a glow in the corner of the room, and realised the wall and chest of drawers were on fire.

She said: "I was in a deep sleep because I was shattered. I don't know why I woke up because the fire wasn't noisy and I wasn't coughing. It was as if someone was watching over us and told me to wake up.

"The room was filling with smoke. I woke Molly and took her downstairs to the entrance hall then I went back and tried to put it out. "I got jugs of water from the bathroom three times but the fire just kept getting bigger, so I shut the bedroom door, went to my neighbour's and called the fire brigade. They were here really quick, it's thanks to them the whole flat didn't go up.

"Molly was bewildered, and she started crying afterwards because I was crying, but she seems fine now."

Fire officers said they were extremely lucky to escape, especially as the smoke alarm was not working. The bedroom is fire damaged and the rest of the flat is smoke damaged.

Lisa said: "The soot is everywhere. It's even coated the inside of the bathroom cabinet and got on the clothes in the airing cupboard."

Lisa, 28, said she couldn't understand how the fire had started as the candle was on a flat surface without anything else near it, but she vowed she would never use candles in her bedroom again.

She said: "I feel like it's a warning. I love candles but it's really shown me how dangerous they are."

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