A family fled for their lives yesterday when a fire broke out in their Stowmarket flat.

A mother and two children, a grandparent and an uncle, all managed to escape unhurt from the three-bedroom flat in Ipswich Street.

Neighbour Bethany Nunn, 22, said she was woken by the family banging on her door at about 3am.

She said: “They came here and knocked on my door and said there was a fire. I called the fire brigade and got all the family inside. It was pretty horrendous. I saw the fire coming out of the windows.

“They were scared and upset – their house was burning down.

“I got them a cup of tea and wanted to make sure the seven-year-old was okay. The little boy was scared – they were terrified.”

Crews from Stowmarket, Needham Market and Bury St Edmunds arrived to find the flat well alight and used a hose reel to bring it under control by 4.55am.

Fire equipment was used to check to see if the fire had spread to the flat’s roof.

The mother in her 20s, her baby and seven-year-old son along with a grandparent, a woman in her 50s, and the uncle – a man in his 20s – were all staying with family in Stowmarket yesterday. The fire is believed to have started in a bedroom and is not being treated as suspicious.

Miss Nunn added: “They were really worried about where they were going to live. They are lovely people, very friendly.”

She said the family were devastated with the fire happening so close to Christmas and they had to go back to their flat yesterday morning to retrieve clothes and essentials.