A family who suffered a fire at their flat say they are now being victimised by Facebook trolls.

Grandmother Jennie Coleman, 59, said: “They have written horrible, cruel things accusing us of starting the fire ourselves.

"That is outrageous. I had my three-year-old granddaughter Ellie in the house at the time so why would I do that?”

Firefighters wearing breathing equipment rescued a kitten from the family’s blazing ground-floor home in Willows House, Woodberry Drive, Sittingbourne.

The flames, which leapt up 20 feet to the balcony above, caused extensive damage to the back door and hall.

The mystery blaze broke out around 3.30pm.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue said: “It is unclear how the fire started but it began in a pile of household rubbish outside the property.

It then spread into the ground-floor flat.

“A fire crew wearing breathing apparatus entered the property and rescued a kitten.

All occupants were accounted for and there were no reported injuries. Crews used a hose-reel jet and a positive pressure ventilation fan to put the fire out.”

Initial reports said the family had been re-housed but they were able to return later that night once a new door had been fitted.

Ellie’s mum Louise Coleman, a 22-year-old care worker, said: “I came home from work and went upstairs to see my daughter. She was asleep so I cuddled up and fell asleep, too.

“The next thing I knew there was a loud bang outside when an electrical box exploded and people were yelling ‘you’re on fire.’

I scooped up Ellie and ran down the stairs with her in my arms and out the door.

My brother Jack, who is 18 and still at college, was in his bedroom with his headphones on.

“He rushed downstairs and started trying to put the flames out with water from a washing-up bowl. But the fire was too hot and things were starting to pop and explode.

“I screamed at him and had to pull him away. He was risking his life trying to save us.

"I can’t believe how some people have accused us of starting the fire and not trying to put it out. Obviously I wanted to get my daughter out of the house first.

“But one girl wrote that she hopes the house will catch fire again and blow up.”

Jennie Coleman had been living at the flat since July with her friends Helen and Jamie Beddow, who rent it from AmicusHorizon Housing Association.

"It was Helen who shut the hall door which firefighters say helped stop the flames from spreading and saved the lounge.

Jennie had also been dozing. She said: “I was woken by a foreign gentleman banging on the door and telling us we were on fire. I don’t know who he was but I’d like to thank him very much.”

She said: “I really don’t understand why the people on Facebook and some of the neighbours have been so horrible to us. We have never done anything to anybody.

"We keep ourselves to ourselves. They say we started the fire deliberately to get re-housed but that’s rubbish.

"We are just trying to get our lives back together again. No one even offered us any help or a cup of tea.”

The family’s menagerie of animals, including Harry the kitten, cats Socks, Rosie, Tiny and Shadow and Sky the dog, were all safe, if a little blackened by smoke.

In a flat on the first floor, a three-year-old boy needed a firemen’s lift to safety as smoke entered the home.

A dad also had to carry his three-year-old daughter out of the building while his partner escaped with her seven-month-old baby girl in her arms.

The 21-year-old father, who did not want to be named, said: “I heard a fire alarm and saw a big flame reach the top of the balcony.

"I rushed my boy out but singed the blanket he was wrapped in as we passed the fire. A pregnant girl also had to be helped out.”