A woman was killed and three other people were fighting for their lives after an arson attack at a house in a leafy suburb of Birmingham this morning.
Firefighters tackled the huge blaze which broke out in Edgbaston, just before 7am.
Neighbours desperately tried to save the residents after spotting the front door of the house engulfed in flames.
Two women and a man leapt from an upstairs window of the £200,000 four-bedroom detached property.
Another woman was trapped in a bedroom upstairs and was killed by the fire.
Detectives at West Midlands Police are treating the fire as a possible arson attack.
Yesterday it emerged a hero lorry driver saved three of the residents from the inferno after he spotted smoke billowing from the property as he drove to work.
Selfless Michael Davies, 38, who lives nearby, rushed to the house and banged on the windows in an attempt to wake the people inside.
He and a friend then helped a man and two women leap from the upstairs windows.
Michael said: “I was on my way to work and I saw lots of smoke coming from the house.
“They weren’t awake when we got there and the outside of the front door was on fire.
“My first impression was that it had been started deliberately.
“Me and my work colleague ran over to the house and were banging on the windows and shouting at the top of our voices.
“We then kicked the back gate in and a man jumped from the upstairs window into the back garden.
“He was calling for the women to jump. Two women managed to jump but one didn’t make it.
“They were calling her but she might’ve been still asleep.
“Even in the back garden we found it hard to breathe because of the smoke.
“If we hadn’t got there when we did it might’ve been four deaths.
“We saw the firemen bring the dead woman out of the front door.
“She was black and burnt like a crisp.
“I’m a bit shook up about it to be honest.”
