A QUICK thinking eight-year-old boy was today praised for saving the lives of his young brothers and sisters when a fire threatened to engulf their home.

Habib Ali rounded up the four children after his sister Saima, 3, pushed her tissue into the lit gas fire and threw it into a plastic waste paper bin.

He carried one-year-old Usman and raised the alarm when they were all safely out of the house. His mum, Kaniz Bibi, 28, had nipped across the road to the telephone box minutes before the blaze started while her husband was at work.

She returned to the terraced house in Blackburn Road, Accrington, to see flames sweeping across a section of the carpet and wallpaper in the living room.

"Habib is very brave. We are all really proud of what he did. He saved the lives of his brothers and sisters, " said Kaniz.

"The bin just melted away and set fire to the carpet."

Firefighters arrived at the house shortly after 7.30pm on Saturday.

A spokesman for Accrington fire station said: "We managed to confine the fire to a small section of the living room.

"Luckily everybody got out safely even though the smoke alarm had no battery in."

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