77398-14A MUM and her five children had a lucky escape after a mobile phone charger started a blaze in a bedroom.

Michelle Russell was woken by a crackling sound early this morning and saw black smoke billowing from the room where her 17-year-old son often sleeps.

Luckily Mark had slept on the sofa downstairs and the other children were in the next room so everyone was able to escape from the Redcliffe Street house unhurt.

"If I hadn't woken up it could have taken all our lives," said Miss Russell, 35.

"It has made me realise how something so stupid can cause so much damage."

She woke up just before 6am when she heard a crackling sound coming from the room.

"I wasn't too sure if I was dreaming it at first" she said.

"But I woke up and saw there were clouds of thick black smoke on the landing.

"I jumped out of bed and shouted down to Mark to get the kids out of the house because they were still asleep."

The bedroom is actually six-year-old Jason's room but he prefers to sleep in with seven-year-old brother Jordan, and sisters Charlotte, nine, and Ashleigh, 10. Mark often sleeps in Jason's room but had fallen asleep on the sofa downstairs instead.

Miss Russell did not try to open the bedroom door and left the other doors shut to stop the fire spreading.

She had to be taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and the younger children, who all have the surname Reed and attend Gorse Hill Infants or Juniors, went to their father's house.

But Ashleigh insisted on going to school as she is sitting her SATs tests.

Mark, who had left his Nokia mobile phone charger plugged in but without the phone attached, was grateful his mum had been woken up.

"What scares me is that the smoke would have got to the kids before it got to me," he said.

"Who knew a mobile phone charger could cause so much damage?"

A Nokia spokeswoman said: "While we are sorry to hear of the incident, until the fire authority's report and detailed forensic investigation are complete we are unable to comment on the cause of the fire."

The family's smoke alarm, which had been on the landing outside the bedrooms, had fallen down yesterday and was waiting to be put back up.

It is the second time the family has suffered a fire at home.

In 2003 a plug socket in their old house in Gooch Street, off Manchester Road, caught fire during the day.

On that occasion Jason, then four, smelt the smoke and the family escaped but the upstairs of the house was badly damaged and Miss Russell remembered the advice firemen gave her then.

Pete Townsend, station commander at Swindon fire station, said houses should be fitted with two smoke alarms, at the top and bottom of the stairs, and warned of the dangers of leaving chargers plugged in.

"By all means charge your phone," he said. "But don't leave them plugged in a socket with the power on once you have finished using them."

Firefighters were going back out to Redcliffe Street today to give other residents fire safety advice and offer to fit smoke alarms.

Anyone who wants safety advice should contact their local fire station.

Isabel Field