A YOUNG mother has told how she feared for the safety of her family after watching flames tear through her neighbour's home. Jo Stent, 22, awoke in the early hours of Sunday morning to hear a smoke alarm going off. At first, the mother-of-one, of Florence Way, Alton, thought it was the alarm in her home, but she could not smell any smoke. She jumped out of bed and looked out of the front bedroom window, just in time to see the first-floor window blow out of the house next door, which was completely engulfed in flames. "I just shouted and screamed and woke up the kids and my partner, Gary, and told them to get outside," Miss Stent said. "We couldn't get out of the front so we ran out of the back door and went around to the front of the house. We were out there in our pyjamas, with no shoes or coats. There wasn't time to get anything." The family, Miss Stent, her partner Gary Osgood, 28, Megan, five, and Mr Osgood's son Jordan, eight, who was staying with the couple for the weekend, joined neighbours who had already called 999. Firefighters from Alton were met by the worried neighbours who believed that there were two children still inside the blazing end- of-terrace house. Four firefighters climbed in through a first- floor window to search for the children, while the remainder started fighting the flames from outside. Sub officer Paul Robson said: "Our main concern is a rescue operation. The crews went in through the first-floor bedroom window. After about 15 minutes it was established that the children were not there, they were staying at a grandparents. We withdrew everyone from the building and then it was a firefighting operation from the outside." The neighbours could only watch as the flames destroyed the two-year-old house, which is owned by Drum Housing Association. Luckily, a fire wall prevented the flames spreading to Miss Stent's house but it suffered severe smoke damage. It took around 26 firefighters from Alton, Odiham, Basingstoke and Hightown, nearly two hours to extinguish the blaze. Sub officer Robson said: "The house was completely destroyed. Unfortunately there was nothing to salvage from it at all." The fire is being treated as arson. A man was taken to hospital by ambulance where he was treated for smoke inhalation before being discharged. Laurence Fowler, assistant chief executive at Drum Housing Association, said he did not know at this stage if the home would need to be rebuilt. "It is still closed as a crime scene so we have limited access to it," he said. "The roof will almost certainly need replacing. The damage inside is extensive but our structural engineer needs to see whether it can be repaired or if it will need to be rebuilt." The family who lived in the blazing home are thought to be staying with family and friends. Meanwhile, Miss Stent and her family have had to move out of their home temporarily while the damage to her home is assessed. The family spent a couple of nights at Miss Stent's mother's home before being housed temporarily in local hotels, courtesy of Miss Stent's insurance company. "Drum have offered us bed and breakfast in Aldershot and Gosport and a flat in Liphook but I don't drive and my daughter has been through enough. She would have to leave her school and her friends and she needs her friends and family around her right now," she said. At the time of going to press, no one from Drum Housing Association was available to comment on Miss Stent's situation. Nicholas Craig Guy, of Florence Way, Alton, appeared at Aldershot Magistrates' Court on Monday charged with arson. The 33-year-old was remanded in custody to appear before Winchester Crown Court on Monday, January 30.
