A NANNY employed by a family in Bermuda is being hailed a hero by the six children she pulled to safety from a burning house in Vermont. Hazel Reposo had accompanied Daniel and Monica Wood and their four children to their home in Stowe. The family live in Smith's.

They were accompanied by the Lohan family, who also live in Bermuda, and their two children.

On the night of February 13, the Wood and Lohan couples set off on a snow-shoeing adventure and left the six children, varying in age from 16 months to ten years, in Ms Reposo's care.

"I had just started making dinner for the children. It was about 5.15 when I heard the alarm," she recalled.

At first she thought it was the stove and was poking around the appliance when the Woods' oldest son, Benjamin, rushed into the kitchen to tell her it was the fire alarm.

Seconds later an hysterical six-year-old Caitlin Lohan ran into the kitchen screaming that there was fire coming out of the garage door of the 4,500-square-foot luxury wooden home.

Because the door leading to the garage was glass, Ms Reposo said she could see the flames and tried not to panic: "I told the children they have to go outside!"

She recalled the children were crying and screaming and were obviously frightened.

Despite her own fear, she tried to keep the children calm and once again told them they had to leave the house.

She then searched for a telephone to call 911: "There was no dial tone because it was connected to the computer, but luckily I found a mobile phone and called 911.

"I was so scared."

Outside one of the worst snow storms in more than a decade was just picking up and in their rush to leave the burning house, neither she nor the children had time to grab shoes or coats.

She once again called 911: "The house is far from anything and I was scared.

"I didn't know how long it would take them to get there and we were standing in knee-deep snow. I didn't know what to do."

A neighbour was outside playing with her children and heard the children's screams.

Ms Reposo said the woman rushed home to get her car and came back to collect them, taking them to her house which was warm and dry.

She also called Mr. Wood to let him know what had happened.

Stowe Fire Chief Mark Sgantas said the Wood home was about seven miles from the fire station and traffic and narrow lanes are often issues when the fire department has an emergency in the area.

However, the trucks got there quickly and he also called in tanker trucks from neighbouring areas to get water on the flames.

He said about 30 fire fighters joined the effort and had the fire under control in less than two hours, but the mop-up and clean-up took them until well past midnight.

Mrs. Wood told the Mid-Ocean News this week: "It was very emotional.

"The kids are fine and they talk about it, but Hazel got them out very quickly that it wasn't like they were trapped or anything."

Mrs. Wood said about 75 per cent of the house was destroyed in the fire, along with all their clothes and passports.

Because of the storm, the family were literally snowed in for almost three days in temporary accommodation before being able to make their way to New York.

At the Philippine Consulate, Ms Reposo caught the attention of the Philippine Consul General, Cecilia Rebong, who contacted the local press.

Within hours, the shy nanny from Bermuda was on a Philippine television station in New York and her heroic actions were recalled in newspapers in the Philippine capital Manila the next day.

Asked if she thought of herself as a hero, the petite young woman smiled and replied: "I don't know, I just wanted to make sure we were okay."

The Woods have since given Ms Reposo a $25,000 gift towards her five-year-old son Ythan's education back in the Philippines.

Mrs. Wood added that she and her husband had talked about doing this for some time, even before the fire, because they would eventually leave Bermuda and wanted to show their appreciation for the work Ms Reposo had done for them since joining the family in 2003.

The couple insisted the $25,000 was not "a reward", but a thank-you because Ms Reposo took care of their most valuable possession — their children.

"We will be forever grateful to her," Mrs. Wood added.