A family-of-four were lucky to be alive after they escaped a Sunday-morning blaze that gutted their semi-detached house.

Firefighters who battled for two hours to stop the fire engulfing the attached house, said their job was made harder by the mountains of videos and DVDs crammed into the property.

Neighbour and former councillor Sue Baker raised concerns with the council about a potential fire hazard in the house just days before the October 9 inferno.

She was cutting back ivy over their fence on Hook Rise South, on the A3 in Tolworth, when the fire started just before 11am.

She said: “I think I had only snipped three strands and the bathroom window blew out and suddenly there was smoke.

“I was screaming ‘Paul, Paul, you have got a fire in your bathroom’.

“The fire brigade said if it had been at night we would not be alive.”

Mrs Baker said she saw rooms fill with smoke, called 999, and rushed to the front where a young woman desperately banged on the front door to rouse the family inside.

She said dad Paul Durrant was out but arrived home before firefighters, while his wife and two sons made their way out without injury.

The Bakers, who only moved back into their house two years ago after major flood damage in Christmas 2008, watched in horror thinking they were going to lose their home.

Firefighters from across south-west London used an aerial platform from Paddington to remove tiles from the Durrant’s house and fight the flames, and used hoses in the Bakers’ loft to prevent the fire spreading.

David Stapley, from New Malden fire station, said: "It was a difficult fire to tackle because of the contents of the house.

"There was a lot of stuff.

"It would have made it a lot harder for us."

He said the house did not have a fire alarm, and advised people with alarms to check the batteries.

A fire investigation team is trying to establish the cause.