She saw smoke coming from the back bedroom and realised the danger to her family.

But the fire brigade said she then tried to re-enter the building to try to put the fire out but was beaten back by the heat and fumes.

Captain Earl Sharman of the Glen Innes Fire Brigade said: “She very quickly evacuated the kiddies when it started. She then tried to re-enter to extinguish it.”

The woman found the smoke too thick and came back out. “She did the right thing”, said Captain Sharman.

He said there was extensive damage to the rear bedroom and a lot of heat damage to the hall and other bedrooms as well as smoke damage to the living room and kitchen.

Another Glen Innes resident was luckier because the neighbour spotted a smoke alarm. On Sunday afternoon, Captain Sharman said that a lady living on Lindsay Avenue heard her neighbour’s smoke alarm and called the brigade.

When they arrived, they found a pot smoking with the gas cooker still runningbut were able to extinguish the fire before even the stove was damaged.

Captain Sharman said it showed the value of smoke detectors. He urged everyone to use them and get their’s checked.

In yet another incident, the fire brigade were called to a maliciously started fire of trees in the parks.

It happened at 6 am on Sunday morning and is the third such incident in two weeks. “We’ve got someone who goes around setting light to trees”, said the fire brigade leader.

It’s not known if these acts of vandalism are being perpetrated by the same person or persons who is vandalising cars and council property behind the Town Hall. The police are aware of both sets of incidents.

After that early call, the brigade then attended a crashed ute 15 kilometres north of Glen Innes. The driver had lost control and was lucky not to hit a tree. He had left the scene.