THREE teenagers have praised the hero firefighters who led them to safety through billowing smoke from an exploding fuse box.

Daisy Hayes, Gina Ashdown, and Cora Greenwood, all aged 19, became trapped in their flat in St Thomas Street, Weymouth, when the electrical board caught alight on Friday night.

They were rescued as smoke filled their home and with only minutes to spare as their puppy drifted in and out of consciousness.

A pensioner, and a couple and their one-year-old baby from neighbouring flats – above Thomson, Connexions, and Sense and Style – managed to get out before the fumes spread.

Daisy, who works for Dorset Police, Gina, an administration student at Kingston Maurward College, and Halfords employee Cora were watching television just before 9pm when they heard a loud bang.

Flatmate Leanne McCallum, 20, was on a night out in Bournemouth.

Daisy said: “There was a bang and the television went off, then the lights started flickering and the fire alarm went off. I ran to the stairs and there was smoke everywhere.

“I said we need to get out now. We got the neighbours out, but by the time we got the two dogs and called the fire brigade, it was too late for us to get out. We were stuck, and that was so scary. When the firemen arrived they came upstairs with their breathing masks on and told us the electrical board was exploding. They said we were probably safer where we were.”

But when the flat started to fill with smoke, the teenagers feared for the lives of Splodge the Beagle puppy and Jake the Collie cross Spaniel.

“We thought Splodge was going to die,” said Daisy. “So we shouted to the firemen out of the window to tell them we had dogs and two of them came up and guided us out through the smoke.

“They were really great. When we said we needed to get out they came straight away and were talking to us to try and cheer us up.”

The trio considered going to the pub that evening and said if they had, the dogs would have died.

“I’m very glad we stayed in now,” said Daisy.

Their neighbour John Renno, 71, heard the bangs and got out as soon as the fire alarm sounded. He said: “I knew we had to get out on the street so I went straight away. It was putrid smoke.”

Next door, Ian Neels, 30, Vicky Garry, 21, and their one-year-old daughter Ellie Neels escaped unharmed. Mr Neels said: “We heard a big bang and all outside lit up red. Then I realised the alarms were going off and I just wanted to get Ellie out of the building. If the fire brigade hadn’t been here so quickly it could have been a lot worse.”

It took five fire crews from Weymouth, Portland and Westbourne to deal with the electrical explosion and a late-night call out to an electrician to make the area safe.