A mum was rushed to hospital with burns to her chest after her family was forced to flee from their burning home.

The blaze, at a home in Saltcote Maltings, Heybridge, started when heat from a lamp set fire to a duvet hung out to air.

Louise Fernando, 44, grabbed daughters Evangeline, nine, and Layla, seven, and fled the smoke and flames.

She plunged back in to try to beat out the flames and rescue her cat Jess, but suffered burns in the process.

Mrs Fernando said: “My first instinct was just get them out, as quickly as possible.

As long as my children were out, that was what mattered.

“My neighbours were screaming for me to get out.

It just consumed me, the smoke and flames.

“The house is just completely wrecked.

“Upstairs is ruined as well.”

Mrs Fernando was rushed to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, after the blaze, at 6.30pm on Monday, where she remained until 2am.

Mrs Fernando does not know when she will be able to return home, but thanked neighbours for helping them.

She said: “I’m devastated. I moved here from Billericay at the end of October.

“The neighbours have been really supportive.”

Hairdresser Lori Hallam, 55, opened her home to Louise and her children and attempted to resuscitate Jess.

She said: “We heard the girls screaming. We made sure they and Louise were out.

“We were giving the cat oxygen with an oxygen lead, because we couldn’t put a mask on.”

She praised local veterinary nurse Mel Williams, who fashioned an oxygen tent from a binliner and a box, bringing Jess back to life.

Mrs Hallam put cold compresses on Mrs Fernando’s burns.

She said: “The girls were very upset. We tried to calm them down and made them tea.

“Everyone mucked in. It was a good effort on all parts.”

Self-employed Tan Bajaj, 46, lives directly behind the house which caught fire.

He said: “I heard some commotion and screams and the fire detector. I could smell smoke. It’s a young family with kids. My first concern was if they were ok, then worry about this house.”

Local historian Kate Dumycz, who lives opposite the fire-stricken house, said: “I was just worried for the people in there and the amount of smoke coming out.

“It was white, thick smoke, billowing out of every single window that was open.”