Three Dublin children and their mother are celebrating their own Christmas miracle after a neighbour rescued them from their blazing home.
Mum Vivienne Kellet and her young children Ellen, Thomas and baby Eric escaped as their Tallaght home burnt on Christmas Day.
Vivienne (28) braved the raging fire and thick black smoke to pass Ellen (10), Thomas (three) and Eric (six months) through a tiny upstairs window.
Neighbours, led by Robert Finn, caught the children before Vivienne herself was rescued as emergency services arrived on the scene.
Hospital staff put Vivienne into an induced coma but she is reported to be recovering well and suffering from superficial burns.
Her mother Joan told the Irish Independent newspaper: “I was talking to the doctor in the hospital and he said it was a miracle they got out.”
Friends and neighbours rushed to the aid of the Kellet family when the fire broke out at around 3.30am on Christmas Day morning at the Knockmore estate in Tallaght.
Finn and fellow neighbours including brothers David and Raymond Fitzgerald and their parents John and Carmel all helped in the dramatic rescue.
“I heard her screaming and I looked out the window,” said Robert Finn said yesterday.
“I didn’t panic; nothing went through my head. You just do what you do. I have never felt heat like that in my life.”
Leading the rescue attempt dressed only in his boxer shorts and a pair of socks, Finn climbed onto a small extension at the back of the house.
He grabbed the children off Vivienne and passed them to neighbors.
“There were gangs out on the street and there was smoke everywhere,” explained David Fitzgerald.
“I brought them (the kids) into the house and put blankets on them.”
The three children are being treated for smoke inhalation at Tallaght Hospital and are said to be in good spirits.
“They said they would be in hospital for 12 to 24 hours as a precaution,” revealed Vivienne’s mother Joan. “They are eating and the baby is taking the bottle.”
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