A FATHER was forced to dangle his toddler son outside a top floor window after smoke from a fire downstairs filled their flat.

Shaun and 18 month old Billy Wilson were trapped in their flat in Edenbridge Drive, Sheerness, after a fire broke out in the stairwell on Sunday night.

A child’s pushchair was deliberately set alight.

It was every parent’s worst nightmare when smoke filled their fourth floor Swale Housing Association flat, with the only escape route blocked.

Mr Wilson, 19, said: "The first I knew about it was when the fire alarm downstairs went off, then mine did. I opened my front door to see what was going on and smoke just poured into the flat.Then I saw flames from downstairs.

"After about two minutes I could not see my hand in front of my face so I went round and tried to open all the windows."

His girlfriend, Danielle Read was not there at the time.

Mr Wilson said: "Billy was absolutely petrified because he didn’t understand what was going on.

"There are no fire exits so we couldn’t get out. The smoke was just pouring in the flat so I went to the back and kicked the bedroom window in.

"I did consider jumping because we just couldn’t breathe. The only thing I could think of was to hold Billy outside the window so he could get some air."

Two pumps from Sheppey Fire and Rescue arrived after about 10 minutes and used a ladder to take Mr Wilson and his son to safety through their living room window.

* Police say they are treating the fire as arson and want to hear from anyone who may have witnessed anything.