A BABY girl who died in a blaze at her family home was on her own in the house with two toddlers when the fire began.

Rosie Prior, aged 15 months, died after fire ripped through her family’s terraced house on a housing estate at lunchtime last Monday.

Her three-year-old twin brothers, Derek and Hacklin, were rescued from the property in Bell Road, Maidstone, before the fire brigade arrived.

Their other brothers James Prior, seven, and Stephen Prior, five, were both at school when the fire broke out.

The children's mother, Nicky Prior, said she went into the back garden to call her partner, Gareth Reader, who was on the green at the end of the row of houses.

She said: "I have no idea what happened. I was three or four metres away from the house, just by our gate.

"When I turned around I saw the smoke. It all all happened in the space of about three minutes."

Miss Prior said the family was devastated by the loss of their only girl. She said: "She just completed the family."

Mr Reader, who isn't the children's biological father but has brought them up as his own, said: "There are just no words to describe how we feel."

About 50 firefighters using nine appliances tackled the blaze which affected a row of terraced houses. Fire crews were called at about 1pm .

Three properties were damaged in the fire, and the families are being rehomed by Maidstone Housing Trust.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service are working with Kent Police to establish the cause of the tragedy.

South East Coast Ambulance Service officer Bob Digby said: "Our thoughts are with the family in what was clearly a very distressing incident for them, and all the emergency services who attended this incident."

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