A mum is warning others after her young son accidentally turned an electric cooker on, setting the kitchen on fire.

Tay Carter moved into her first home in Snodland with her son, Enzo, just four months ago.

On the evening of July 10, she’d put some clothes on top of the cooker after getting back from shopping and her toddler unknowingly turned it on.

The 22-year-old said: “It just went up in flames, it was just a nighmare.

“We have an electric cooker so usually I’m quite on top with making sure Enzo is nowhere near it – on this day I was again, but I didn’t look close enough really.

“We went shopping as it was my birthday the day after, and as we got back I put everything on the cooker and I folded up washing and put that all on top of it just to get it out of the way.”

Her partner was in the kitchen when he began shouting for the pair to get out of the house.

She said: “Before I even got to the kitchen I could feel the heat from the fire, I grabbed my little boy and ran outside, all the neighbours were standing outside already.

“I left him with the neighbours while I ran back in to get my partner and we both came back out.”

One of her neighbours called the fire service before they’d even left the house and helped to look after Enzo and Tay’s 15-week-old puppy.

Neighbours also helped the family by giving Enzo, who is 20 months old, a blanket and some snacks.

“They were all really, really helpful,” she said, “They helped us as much as they possibly could.”

Firefighters arrived at the two-bed house “really quickly” and were able to put the blaze out.

Tay said: “They were there for a while because even though the kitchen was the most damaged, a lot of the house was smoke damaged and a lot of our clothes were burnt.

“All the stuff on the side was my son’s clothes, so these last few days I’ve been trying to top them back up.”

The pair have been put in a hotel until the house is sorted.

The mum said she has noticed a change in Enzo’s behaviour, as he’s not following his usual routine.

She said: “As he can’t talk I can’t tell but I do think it’s affected his routine and the way he is, which is obviously putting another massive stress on me as I’m trying to make sure he’s okay.”

The only room that was not damaged in the house was Tay’s room as the door had been shut, however the walls and carpet in the rest of the house are black.

“I’ve definitely learnt my lesson, 100%,” she said.

“The cooker definitely needs to be turned off at the wall when you’re not using it and we’re definitely investing in some baby gates.

“Another thing is I would advise people to have fire extinguishers because I think if we’d had one it wouldn't have been as bad, but because we had nothing to put the fire out it escalated quickly.

“All he did was turn the hob and all the rings were on which caused everything to catch alight.

“Unfortunately, we did not have contents insurance, so I’m now having to buy everything again which is why my mother-in-law set up a GoFundMe page.

“I’ve now had a look into home insurance – the things you don’t think will happen to you can happen to you, I never in my life thought I’d be in a house fire.”