family whose house went up in flames early yesterday morning.

Mr. Manuel Peixoto and his wife and sons were asleep in the house, Rose Cottage, on the corner of Par-La-Ville Road and Park Street, when a group of men driving to the Esso gas station around 4.45 a.m. saw smoke and flames coming from the cellar.

Mr. Gary Augustus and his friends stopped the car immediately and ran up to the house to wake up the occupants.

"We banged on the door,'' he said. "No one came at first but we kept banging. Eventually a woman who did not speak English came to the door. We shouted `Fire!' and she quickly came outside.'' Mr. Augustus said the rest of her family soon joined her.

However, a teenager who came to the door had run back to put clothes on seconds before the fire got worse.

"It just went out of control and there was smoke and flames everywhere,'' Mr.

Augustus said. "We thought he was definitely going to be in the middle of it.'' He and the other men were unable to get into the house to find the boy. But seconds later he managed to escape via a back door and joined his family.

By that time six fire trucks and Police had arrived.

Family saved from fire A Fire Service spokesman said an officer, P.c. Khun Evans, suffered minor smoke inhalation trying to get to an occupant of the three-bedroom house.

There were no other injuries though.

Fire fighters all used breathing apparatus to put the blaze out.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, the spokesman said.

He added it was believed there was thousands of dollars worth of structural and internal damage to the house, owned by the Corporation of Hamilton.

Mr. Augustus said it appeared the blaze started in the house's cellar.

Corporation secretary Mr. Roger Sherratt yesterday thanked the men for their rescue attempt saying the family was extremely grateful.

"If it had not been for their prompt action it very likely could have been a real tragedy,'' he said.

He noted another passerby, Mr. Shelton Fox, had also helped by running to the nearby gas station for a fire extinguisher.

"It was just luckily we were all passing by,'' Mr. Augustus said.

Also in the car were Mr. Antonio Clark, Mr. David Burgess and Mr. Clement Young.

The family was unable to return to their house, the outside of which is completely charred while the inside was gutted.

GUTTED -- A Portuguese couple and their children living in this Hamilton house were saved by the occupants of a passing car.