A mum and her baby son had to jump to safety from a bedroom window when fire swept through their flat this week.

And yesterday Rachel Bowden from Looe said that they are still alive because a smoke detector went off and woke her up.

This drama happened in the week that the Cornish Times is announcing details of our cash support for local firefighters attempts to provide smoke detectors for people who need them.

Support from the Cornish Times and Caradon District Council includes donating 50 state-of-the-art smoke detectors and 100 batteries. Full details of the campaign are on page 8.

Twenty nine year old Rachel jumped out of the bedroom window, taking one year old son Ben to safety with her, when a fire which had started in the kitchen, swept through her flat in a matter of minutes. It was Ben's first birthday.

Miss Bowden, of Woodlands View, said that at about 8.30am she had layed down on her bed with Ben for a nap after a disturbed night because he is teething, and the detector stirred them within half an hour at 9am.

'I went to the kitchen and found it full of smoke so I immediately dialled 999' she said. 'The operator told me to shut myself in the bedroom and put bedding around the door to help keep the smoke back, but I could feel the heat on the other side and it was starting to come through.

'By then I was beginning to panic and opened the window to shout for help but no one heard me. Only half the window opens but I managed to get one leg through, swivel round and pull Ben on to my front. After that I just threw myself out landing on my back with the baby on top of me'.

Looe Fire Brigade were quickly on the scene but the kitchen and lounge were gutted and everything in the two rooms was also lost, including Ben's new toys and cards he had received for his birthday.

'Only the bedroom escaped real damage, but we only have what we were left standing up in' said Miss Bowden. 'Everything we owned has gone, but I am just so relieved that Ben is alive. I still don't know how I got us both through such a small window, but if I hadn't made it I would have thrown him out anyway'. She said she cannot thank enough a Caradon Council official who visited her a month ago to check the building and noticing it didn't have a smoke detector installed one right away. 'Without it there is no doubt that Ben and I would not be alive today, the smoke would have got us' she said.

Spokesman for Caradon Council, Philip Sweet (Principal Maintenance Officer), said the council took the stance in 1989 to fit all the housing stock with smoke detectors. 'It is our first priority to look after our tenants, and it is a great relief to us that the equipment worked and the lady and her son are safe' he said. It is believed the fire was caused when a clothes horse standing next to a gas fire toppled over, the clothing igniting.