FIREFIGHTERS rescued family pets from a house blaze started by a candle 10-year-old Bethany Butterworth lit in memory of her gran.

The blaze gutted the youngster’s bedroom at the family’s home in Coulston Road, Corsham, last Friday.

Mum Angela Butterworth, 46, said she was cooking dinner at 6.20pm when her son Connor came downstairs to tell her the bedroom was alight.

She said: “We have a curtain dividing the room into two halves because he shares it with his sister. I got the children and our three dogs out and then rushed up to look at the bedroom and saw it had gone up in flames. At the time I didn’t know why but I later found out that Bethany lit a candle in a locker by her bed beside a picture of my mum Loretta, as a way of remembering her.

“The flames were up to the ceiling by the time I got halfway up the stairs. I know I shouldn’t have but I rushed into my bedroom and put all of the pictures I had on display of my mum under the mattress. I couldn’t bear to lose them.”

The family then fled outside to wait for the fire brigade. “I was so upset, especially after my mother’s death,” said Mrs Butterworth, whose mother died last Monday.

Firefighters saved Bethany’s two gerbils from a glass tank in the burning bedroom.

Mrs Butterworth said: “I’m just relieved none of our animals died and that everybody was safe. It could have been much worse if Bethany had lit the candle in the evening because I think there would have been a death if somebody was in bed.”

See obituary for Loretta Butterworth.: