Firefighters have been praised for rescuing three babies from a house fire in Braintree.

Two crews arrived within four minutes of mum Anita Somerville raising the alarm when her tumble dryer caught fire in the kitchen.

They dashed inside the house in Chapel Hill, Braintree, and plucked 20-month-old Erin and six-month-old twin boys Ronan and Nathan to safety. It took firefighters about 15 minutes to put out the blaze which was confined to the kitchen.

The rest of the downstairs area was heavily smoke-logged following the incident at about 12.20pm on Wednesday.

Mrs Somerville said she couldn't thank the firefighters enough for their efforts in collecting her children from the house.

She said: "Three babies are quite a handful and it would have taken time for me to get them all out of the house. Luckily, the fire crews arrived really quickly and helped to get them outside straight away.

"They even returned to get the children some toys and played with them in the fire engine. My twin boys loved meeting the firemen and sitting in the engines.

"The firefighters did their jobs brilliantly but they also did that bit extra."

An ambulance also arrived at the scene but the family didn't need any medical treatment. Mrs Somerville and Nathan were given oxygen as a precaution after they inhaled smoke.

Firefighters believe an electrical fault in the tumble dryer was the cause of the fire.

Braintree Fire Station officer Dave Mayes said the Somerville family did everything right.

He added: "It was excellent the way the whole family stayed calm throughout.

"Fortunately the family was downstairs at the time and the house was kitted out with a smoke detector.

"Luckily, we managed to get there quickly because we were already in the area following a false alarm."

Mrs Somerville spent Wednesay night scrubbing the smoke from walls with husband Stuart, who was at work during the drama.

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