Trampoline bounces Lynn fire victims to safety
A MUM and her two daughters have their hero neighbours to thank for their lives after they used a trampoline to save them from a house fire.
Stephen Kirk convinced Kelly Auker (25) to drop her children down to him from the bedroom where the three were trapped in their smoke-logged home.
Then, after catching Billie (two) and Lucy (three) in his arms, quick-thinking Stephen and another neighbour Steve Gudgeon hauled a trampoline from the next-door garden and got Kelly to jump down on to it.
Read also: Neighbours rally after Lynn fire drama.
Kelly said: "I was so scared we weren't going to get out. The children were crying and coughing.
"You watch things like this on TV and never think they are going to happen to you."
Kelly and partner Kim (32) had woken up at 2.45am on Tuesday to the smell of smoke.
When Kim went to investigate he discovered flames raging up the stairs of their home in King's Green, Fairstead, leaving him with no choice but to leap from the window and scramble to neighbour Stephen's home to get help.
Stephen (37) immediately launched into action, he ran outside and tried to get into the burning home through the front door, but was beaten back by the heat of the flames.
He said: "I could hear Kelly screaming so I ran round the back and ripped down the fence to get in the back garden.
"I couldn't see her because of all the smoke and said 'you've got to drop the kids'.
"Then I had to swear and scream at her to jump too because she was too frightened to do it. I just did what anyone else would do."
Steve Gudgeon (42), woken like others in the street by the commotion, also tried to get in through the front of the house but, confronted with the same choking heat and smoke, ran round to help Stephen and between them they smashed down another fence to get to the trampoline next door.
Steve said: "It was chaos. The fire was whipping up quickly and you could see the fear in Kelly's eyes. There was black smoke pouring out behind her."
Both neighbours and Kim, Kelly and their daughters were treated for smoke inhalation but are all now out of hospital.
Kim said: "They are heroes, I can't put it any other way. I knocked on Stephen's door because he is always level-headed and he just knew what to do.
"The most traumatic bit was being out of the house with my kids still in there.
"It kept going through my mind 'what if I'm the only one to get out?'"
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Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 9 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
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