A QUICK-THINKING five-year-old alerted neighbours to a house fire in Blaenavon.

The blaze, in a semi-detached home on Elgam Avenue, Blaenavon, was reported at 4.45am on Saturday after Lucy Day smelled smoke and woke her mother Heather, both pictured.

Retained firefighters, not part of the strike by the Fire Brigades Union, extinguished the fire before a Green Goddess manned by a RAF crew arrived.

The householder, a young mother and her 18-month-old daughter, were staying out of the area overnight.

No-one was hurt but the property was badly damaged.

Neighbour Heather Day, 36, said: "My daughter woke me up saying she smelled smoke. I could too so I thought 'Oh God, my house is on fire,' but there was nothing.

"Then I looked through a window and there was firelight from the neighbour's windows and there was smoke everywhere.

"We woke up next-door and kicked and banged on the door of the burning house but there was no-one there.

"An RAF crew had arrived in a Green Goddess at the end of the street but the fire was finished by the time they'd got there.

"But if it hadn't been for Lucy we'd all still have been in our beds."

Jean and Ken Evans live on the other side of the semi-detached home that caught fire. Jean, 59, said: "I woke up and smelled smoke, my husband got out of bed and I could hear an alarm going but it wasn't ours so he got back in.

"Then the door bell went and my neighbour said 'There's a fire next door,' so we got out of the house."

Mr Evans, 62, added: "The firefighters were here quickly and it's a good job they were."

The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.