THE actions of seven-year-old Ellie-Marie Hussain are to be applauded.

The youngster woke up in the middle of the night and smelled smoke coming from downstairs.

She immediately went to wake her sleeping mum and, though scared, managed to alert her two sisters to the blaze downstairs.

Firefighters have hailed her as a hero and her family have said they are very proud of her actions.

Fire crew manager Robin Barker said they had been extremely lucky because the blaze in a tumble drier had caused a lot of dangerous black smoke.

In fact, many of the family’s belongings have been badly damaged and they have been forced to move out while the house is repaired.

Frighteningly, the family’s downstairs smoke alarm failed to go off because the battery was not working.

It was only as they fled the building that a second alarm upstairs was activated.

Such incidents reinforce the need to install smoke detectors and make sure they are in good working order.

Ellie-Marie and her family will soon be able to return to their Nelson home.

Sadly, there are still too many cases when loved ones lose their lives to fire because they never got a warning.