A FAMILY forced to flee from their burning home have urged others to fit smoke alarms.

The Littler family say they were lucky to escape with their lives after a fire started in an upstairs bedroom and quickly took hold of their Eastleigh home.

Tracey, her four children, Vicki, 21, Oliver, 19, Ted, 13, Georgina, 12, her husband Vernon and friend Dawn Green were downstairs, unaware that a television had caught fire, as the property had no working smoke alarms.

It was only Georgina’s screams that alerted everyone to the blaze in the bedroom, where Tracey, 45, had left the television on moments before.

Within minutes everyone was out of the house safely and watched in horror as smoke engulfed the home and windows exploded.

Tracey said the fire could have ended in tragedy if they had been asleep, as they would have had no way of knowing the fire had started.

Tracey said: “I dare not think about what would have happened if we had all been asleep in the house. The thought is just too scary.

“I cannot believe how quickly it all happened. Within minutes the fire had my whole bedroom in flames, the television had exploded and the bed was destroyed.

“It just goes to show how important smoke detectors are. We never thought this would happen to us but it did and it so nearly could have been fatal.

“I want to urge everyone to make sure they have working smoke detectors fitted. Don’t get caught out like we did.”

Firefighters took an hour to put out the blaze, which started at 7.30pm on Wednesday, before fitting new smoke alarms for the family at their Consort Road home.

Watch manager Graham Tatner said: “If it had been in the middle of the night, it might have been a very different case because they didn’t have a single working smoke detector in the house. They had a very lucky escape.”