A heroic five-year-old boy saved his family from a raging house fire – when he woke his dad by hitting him with his MICKEY MOUSE toy.
Little Robin Gunnett woke up after smelling smoke coming from the airing cupboard upstairs and dashed into his parents’ room to raise the alarm.
He managed to wake dad Andrew by hitting him on the head with his favourite toy before the family scrambled to safety.
The blaze broke out as a result of a suspected faulty boiler which ignited towels drying in the airing cupboard of the family’s home in Swinstead, Lincs., in the early hours of October 24.
After being woken up by his son, Andrew, 43, helped his pregnant wife Carla, 35, and their three-year-old son Matthew and daughters, ten-month-old Carrie-Ann, and two-year-old Sarah-Ann, who fled the house.
Incredibly, the family escaped serious injuries and were treated for smoke inhalation.
Andrew, a taxi driver, said his family were saved as a result of his hero son.
He said: “It was early in the morning, maybe 5am or 6am, and I woke up to a giant Mickey Mouse in my face and I had no idea what on earth was going on.
“It was the first day of Robin’s half-term and I had worked the night before so I knew we could have a lie in.
“Robin said ‘Daddy my bedroom is on fire, Mickey wants us all to wake up’ and I thought he must be joking.
“But he asked me to sit up and I looked up and saw an orange glow in the hall.
“I was fumbling around with no glasses or socks on trying to rally everyone around.
“We feel extremely lucky. If it wasn’t for Robin we would have been toast.
“I went back in to get our two-year-old daughter Sarah-Ann. She was cowering behind the door. I was on my hands and knees because the smoke was so bad.
“My hair was singed on the left-hand-side of my head.
“The fire was coming out of the airing cupboard, across the ceiling and over the landing. It was filling up with smoke rapidly.
“We managed to run at a crouch down the stairs and out the front door. Neighbours called the fire brigade and they came and tackled the fire. The house was wrecked.
“I have no doubt that if Robin hadn’t woken us up we would all have died.
“We haven’t had a report to say what’s caused it, so it’s a waiting game now.
“I went back in with a firefighter and they showed me the damage. I was devastated.
“Parts of the upper floor had come through to the downstairs.
“Everything in the house was destroyed. It was a perfect house with a big garden for the kids. They loved it.
“We had started the Christmas shopping and it’s all gone. Anything that was combustible like toys and clothes has completely gone.
“Carla is actually alright. She was upset because she lost scan photos of her pregnancies.
“We have another son who was stillborn in November 2009 and all the paperwork to do with him and the last existing photographs of him have gone.
“We are in temporary accommodation at the moment. It’s been a nightmare and we have nowhere to put anything.
“Robin went back to school last week. He’s quite unfazed. The school has made a fuss of him and they’ve been amazing. He’s loving the attention.”
The family were put up in a Travelodge and are now living in temporary accommodation in Stamford, Lincs., while they wait to be rehoused.
Carla, who is 25 weeks’ pregnant, said: “When Robin came into the bedroom and there was the fire I thought we just need to throw a bucket of water over it, but then I saw the landing lit up orange and thought, ‘we have to get out now’.”
The family has since been inundated with help from kind-hearted neighbours and the wider community.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue confirmed the cause of the fire was accidental.
