NEIGHBOURS have been rallying round to help two families made homeless after fire gutted their terraced homes.

A couple in their 70s and a family of eight lost most of their possessions in the inferno which ripped through their homes in Sedbergh Road, Millbrook, during the early hours of Saturday.

Thirteen-year-old Rachel Cowley was taken to Southampton General Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation after clambering out of a first-floor bedroom window and onto a porch to escape the fire.

Her parents and siblings all escaped unharmed.

Neighbour Lyn Liles said yesterday: "Rachel was kept in overnight - but she is fine."

Pensioners Peter and Elsie Lacey had lived in their home since it was built in 1952. They are now staying with their daughter.

Meanwhile, Sue Cowley, her partner Chris, and her children David, 20, Gary, 18, Rachel, 13, Andrew, nine, Erin, seven, and James, five, have been given bed and breakfast accommodation in a Totton guesthouse.

Mrs Liles and her husband, Peter, praised the community for rallying round during and after the blaze.

But Mr Liles said: "What has worried us is the severity of the fire and how quickly it went up.

"Lyn called to me. I ran over there and we got a couple of the kids and Peter and Elsie and by that time both roofs were roaring and it was starting to come out of the bedroom windows. The speed was frightening."

Fire chiefs are still investigating the cause of the blaze but it is thought it could be electrical.