A nine-year-old girl has been praised by firefighters after saving her family from a fire in their home in Gravesend this morning.

When Billeigh Gould discovered the blaze in the ground floor lounge of the house in Palmer Avenue, she promptly closed the internal door and called up to her mother, grandmother and older sibling, who were upstairs, alerting them to the blaze.

They quickly escaped to safety and called the emergency services. Minutes later fire crews arrived on the scene and entered the three-storey house.

Thames-side Crew Manager, David Aylwin, said: "Once inside, crews noticed that the door to the lounge was extremely hot due to the severe heat of the fire behind it. We swiftly tackled the fire, containing it to the lounge.

"There is no doubt that in closing the lounge door and raising the alarm that Billeigh’s actions helped prevent it from spreading to other parts of the house, and certainly reduced the amount of smoke in the property. This allowed her family to get out unharmed."

Fire crews were even able to save the family fish, although the heat of the fire had melted their tank, causing it to spill its contents.

It's thought the fire was started accidently, when a halogen heater set fire to a curtain after it was caught by a breeze from an open door.

The damage was mostly contained to the lounge and internal door.

Billeigh's mum, Debborah Gould, said: "Despite all the damage, we are counting our blessing this afternoon, as the situation could have been far worse. Fortunately, Billeigh had recently been given a fire safety talk about what to do if a fire breaks out at home and this may well have saved our lives."