Four teenagers were lucky to be alive today after scrambling through a bathroom window to escape a devastating blaze which completely destroyed their home.
Firefighters from Southend and Shoebury arrived at the mid-terrace house in Chinchilla Road, Southchurch, just after midnight to find flames leaping from shattered windows and metal dripping from the frames as it melted in temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees centigrade while the carpet burned under their feet.
The four people inside - two boys and two girls in their late teens - had climbed from an upstairs window when they realised they were trapped in the inferno late on Saturday night.
see Monday's Evening Echo for full story
Published Sunday, January 5, 2003
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