Video: Firefighters tackle Bilsthorpe blaze which left a young family homeless

Hanna Byatt, 23, her daughter Mercy 4, and son Rowan 3, had to make a hole in a fence to escape the blaze as vehicles exploded on Highfields Drive yesterday (Tuesday June 13).

The fire is thought to have spread from a car to the house and then to a van and mobile home parked in the driveway.

Fire investigators are probing the cause of the blaze which was reported at around 5.35pm.

Hanna, still traumatised by the fire said:”I am so thankful we got everybody out.

“The van caught fire and that was it - i’ve no idea how it started.

“I got the children out straight away and over the fence.

“I took them around the back to a neighbours so they were safe and they didn’t see what had happened.”

She told how her Staffy dog Roxy helped her rescue their cat and six kittens and then disappeared.

“She went up and down the stairs with me as I got the cats and then she wasn’t there any more.

“The firefighters ended up getting her out - she was hiding in a toybox in the living room and had been in the middle of it all for 25 minutes.

“It is amazing that she was OK.”

As well as ripping through the rented house, the fire destroyed a mobile home, a van and two cars.

Firefighters from Edwinstowe, Blidworth, Ashfield and Mansfield and Southwell tackled the fire with the help of an aerial ladder from Chesterfield.

Hanna says she lost all her possessions.

Neighbour Rob Waldron, 86, made this short video as the firefighters extinguished the blaze.

A Justgiving page is being set up to help the family, more details when we have them.