...say family in house fire

A dad says his family owes their lives to Mock The Week when a house fire gutted their home.

Rob Ellmore says he was only alerted to the blaze because he’d stayed up to watch the panel show.

The rest of the family – his wife Michelle and their two children, aged four and 18 months – were sleeping when the fire caught hold on Monday night.

It was only when he turned the TV off that he heard a noise downstairs which, on investigation, was a fire in the kitchen of their house in Upchurch.

‘There was a smoke alarm in the kitchen but it didn’t go off,’ Rob told local website KentOnline.’It could have been game over as the smoke would have got us before the flames while we were sleeping.’

Michelle added: ‘I feel very emotional and shaken and very lucky that my husband decided to stay up.Someone was obviously watching over us.’

Her father, who lives next door, came to the rescue too, helping the family escapee before firefighters arrived.

Mock The Week host Dara O Brian tweeted the story of the family’s plight to his 2million followers; while producer Ewan Phillips has invited the couple to a recording of the next series of the show in June.

Michelle said: ‘It was really lovely of them to invite us to the studio. My husband, who is a big fan of the show, said it was something nice to look forward to.’  

Published: 11 Feb 2015