Three children killed in house blaze

Three young children have died in a house fire in Northumberland.

Three other people were rescued and three escaped from the fire in Widdrington.

One firefighter was injured in the rescue operation at the semi-detached house and was treated in hospital.

A Northumbria fire brigade spokeswoman says they were called to a severe fire in the ground floor of the property just before midnight.

Officers brought out three children, but it later emerged they had died. Three crews arrived at the scene to find two adults and a child who had escaped.

He said firefighters arrived at the scene to find the children's father trying to extinguish the fire with a garden hose.

Station Officer Bennett said: "It was absolute pandemonium. There was probably about 75 neighbours in the street. They were absolutely hysterical.

"There was a person we believe to be the father of the children trying to put the fire out with a garden hose."

The blaze at the three-bedroom semi-detached home in Widdrington Station, near Ashington, spread rapidly after it started downstairs, the firefighter said.

Mr Bennett, who has started an investigation into the cause of the fire, said 17 firefighters were working on the blaze.