A one-year-old child saved her mother and cousin from a blaze at their block of flats - by doing what comes naturally.

Little Maisi cried in the night and woke her family as flames tore through the roof of their block, just feet from their top-floor front door.

Her mother Allison Walton, who had been fast asleep, got up to tend to Maisi and then heard "frying" noises.

She opened her front door to find flames and thick smoke.

Mrs Walton quickly wrapped Maisi in a duvet and woke her nephew Craig Smith, 19.

Mr Smith telephoned the fire brigade and the three fled to safety.

Mrs Walton said: "I have never been so scared in all my life. I just had one thing in my mind, to get Maisi out.

"It is so unlike her to wake in the night but maybe it was the noise of the fire that disturbed her.

"Whatever it was, I don't think we'd be telling our story now if it hadn't been for her."

Mrs Walton and her nephew woke others in the flats at Faygate Court, Whitehawk Way, Brighton.

All escaped except a mother and her two daughters who were trapped in the flat opposite Mrs Walton's.

Neighbours tried to reach them but were driven back by acrid smoke in the stairwell.

Firefighters told the 31-year-old to keep her daughters, ten and 11, and the family dog inside their home as they tackled the blaze.

Crews put a ladder against the building in case they needed to reach the family through a window but the trio and their pet were later safely led out.

The fire broke out shortly before 3am yesterday in the central roof space where squatters had been living.

A candle in a bottle is thought to have toppled over and started the fire.

Twenty firefighters from Hove, Preston Circus and Roedean fought the blaze. No one was hurt.