FIRE chiefs say two

children and their parents are lucky to be alive today after breathing in smoke as they slept.

A fire started in a shop below the family's first floor flat in Upper Lewes Road during the night.

They woke this morning coughing and suffering from sore throats.

Firefighters were called to the food store, where they found a burnt-out refrigerator, fumes from which had risen into the family's flat.

They were taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital but their condition was not serious.

Assistant divisional officer Ian Alexander said: "These people are incredibly lucky to be alive. We could so easily have been removing bodies from that flat.

"A freezer had caught fire but the blaze had run out of fuel. Smoke went up into the flat and the people just breathed in the fumes as they slept.

"The children, aged three and two, woke with soot marks round their noses and were coughing. The mother, who has asthma, had breathing difficulties.

"I would again urge people to install smoke alarms in their homes and maintain them. In this case, it would have alerted the family."

He said a fire last night in a student's bedsit in Upper Bevendean Avenue could also have been prevented by a working smoke alarm.

A candle set fire to curtains and firefighters later found a smoke alarm near the kitchen but the battery had been taken out. The flat was badly smoke-damaged.

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