Five-year-old girl critically ill after house fire in west Belfast

02/01/2007 - 08:06:16
A five-year-old girl is in a critical condition in hospital today after she was rescued from a burning house in west Belfast overnight.

The girl was one of five children aged between five and 12 who were staying with their grandmother when the blaze broke out on Springfield Road just after midnight.

Another three adult relatives were also in the house at the time.

The grandmother raised the alert after she was woken by her smoke alarm.

The two fathers of the children subsequently managed to take four of them to safety, but they could not reach the fifth, who was trapped in an upstairs bedroom.

She was subsequently rescued by firefighters and is being treated in intensive care, where her condition is believed to be critical.

The blaze is believed to have started accidentally and the Fire Service says there would have been fatalities had it not been for the smoke alarm.