A BRAVE young man ran back into his blazing home and dragged his family to safety last night.

Neighbours say Dan Davenport, 18, twice ran through a wall of flames to rescue his eight-year-old brother Jake and his six-year-old sister Autumn from their burning Hampshire home.

His mother Wendy, 41, sister Donna, 19, and her one-year-old son Joshua also escaped the blaze at 7.30pm that completely gutted the house and incinerated all of their possessions.

Dan had to be restrained by four neighbours when he attempted to go in again to rescue his white kitten which was later found safe.

"He was covered in soot, completely black by the end of it because he had just run through the flames. We gave him glasses of water and he gulped it down. What he did was brilliant," said one neighbour.

The ex-Henry Cort School pupil was rushed to hospital for a check-up but he was not believed to have been injured.

It is thought the fire in Stow Crescent, Fareham, started in the kitchen on a cooker within 15 minutes it had quickly spread to every room of the house.

"They have lost everything apart from each other. Dan did an amazingly brave thing, he is a good person. It would have been so much worse if he hadn't done that," said Mark Hilsom, 18, a friend and neighbour of Dan's.

Locals immediately rallied round, producing clothes for the youngsters to wear as the pair were preparing for bed before the blaze and had very little on.

An appeal fund was launched to equip the family with new possessions - and in just a few hours it had proved highly successful.

Appeal organiser Nygel Hulbert, 18, said: "Basically they need everything. It must be horrible for them to be homeless and not have any clothes or possessions.

"I wasn't expecting to get much money or stuff, but we've had a brilliant response and I've only been to about 15 houses. So far we've got enough to kit out one kid and £37 but we need more.

"We're really looking for electrical items like a kettle, food preferably tinned or packaged so it will keep, baby's milk, kids' and adults' clothes and just about everything else you could think of."

To donate items to the appeal please contact Nygel on 07791 547292.

The family is staying with relatives near to their burned home.