A TERRIFIED family with a newborn baby have told how they were forced to flee their flat after fire broke out in the fish bar below.

Joseph Blake, 20, of Rayleigh Road, Eastwood, was sleeping in his flat above Ideal Fish Bar with partner, Hannah Smith, two-year-old son Kilian-Thomas, and one-week-old Mia-Grace when the fire broke out.

He said: “Hannah woke me up at about 3.30am as she’d got up to feed Mia-Grace saying she could smell something and I started to feel extremely hot. It was a sweet plastic smell rather than smoke and we heard an alarm which I thought was from the flats behind us.

“I went downstairs to check the restaurant.

“When I got back smoke had flooded the living room through the floorboards.

“The smoke was covering the flat.

“I told Hannah to get the children and get downstairs.

“She was really scared and I did not know what I should do.”

As smoke filled the flat Joseph called the owner of the fish bar and the fire service to tell them about the fire.

He gathered toys and bottles to feed the baby before rushing back out.

Joseph’s parents came to help and quickly took Hannah and the two children back to their home near Eastwood Park.

He is an animation student and his mother warned him to get his computer but the smoke was too thick to get in and take anything, but a tablet.

He said: “As soon as I got outside the building, firefighters turned up and starting putting the fire out.

“There were two fire engines and a lot of firefighters were trying to get into the building.

“I cannot say for definite when it got put out but I think it was around 5am.

“My dad stayed with me while they were still trying to battle it.

“I stood outside until around 6.30am, I just wanted to make sure the owners of the restaurant were okay.”

Joseph said both Kilian-Thomas and Mia-Grace are healthy following the incident.

The flat is smoke-damaged but the fish bar was destroyed, according to fire crews.

It is not known how long it will take before the fish bar can re-open.