A QUICK-THINKING nineyear-old boy has been praised for saving his grandmother and family pet from a fire at her home.

Leland White was spending his usual morning this week getting ready for school at his grandmother’s home in Malpas when the electricity cut out and she could smell burning.

The blaze, at the front of Karen Williams’ home, engulfed the whole entrance preventing the pair from escaping the building.

Not only did Leland guide his grandmother and the family pet to safety through the rear door, he also stopped his grandmother throwing water at the fire - which would have hit cables in an electrical box and killed them.

Karen Williams said: “At about 8.15am the electricity cut out.

“Leland was in the dining room with my dog Mickey. I then thought I would go to see my neighbours to see if their electricity had gone.

“When I walked towards the door I could smell something burning.” When Miss Williams opened the front door, the whole of the entrance was engulfed in flames.

“The fire was big,” said the 54-year-old grandmother.

“We could not get out through the front.

“It was starting to go up the front of the building as well.”

Sensing the danger, Leland quickly saved the family’s 14-year-old shih-tzu by taking it through the backdoor.

In that time, Miss Williams had ran to the kitchen to fill a bowl of water to throw over the fire.

But she did not realise that the fire had been caused by an electrical fault.

“I was about to throw the water when Leland ran in and stopped me,” she said.

“He had seen from outside that the fire had come from the electrical box, near my front door. He warned if I threw the water it would have hit the cables and killed us. He was taught in school not to throw water on electrical fires because you could get electrocuted.

“He had come back to get me. We went through the back.”

Miss Williams added: “The fire service told me there was an electrical fault. I am so thankful to Leland. He saved us.”