A family made homeless by a blaze at their home have backed a fire service campaign to stop people making excuses for not fitting and maintaining smoke alarms.

Laura Foster, her partner Philip Linford and their four-month-old daughter Emily, watched as their home in Hardwick Avenue, Kidlington, was engulfed by smoke from a kitchen fire on Tuesday.

Laura Foster and daughter EmilyThe house was fitted with smoke detectors - but the batteries had been removed.

The fire started when the microwave oven, which was being used to heat a baby's bottle sterilizer, burst into flames because of a fault in the timer.

Luckily, the family had just left the house to visit neighbours. They were alerted by a friend who spotted smoke billowing from upstairs windows.

The couple stood holding their child as most of their possessions were destroyed. Their cat, which was initially trapped in the house, escaped unhurt.

Mr Linford said: "You don't realise how much of your life is in your home. It took such a short space of time to destroy everything."

Ms Foster said: "All we had left were the clothes we stood up in and our baby. You just don't think about it until something like this happens. If we had been asleep in the house, our baby would never have survived."

The family now face a three-month stay in an hotel while their home is restored.

Ms Foster said: "Standing outside the house that night we didn't feel at all lucky. It felt like we had lost everything. But we realise we are all alive and well and that means everything.

"We would urge other people to act now, as soon as they put The Oxford Mail down after reading this, they should check they have properly fitted alarms. It costs next to nothing.

"We considered ourselves to be responsible people, but this has made us realise how important smoke alarms are."