Dad screams ‘somebody catch my children’ as he 'throws daughters from flat fire window'

A dad screamed “somebody catch my children” as he threw his daughter from the window of a blazing block of flats.

A fire tore through a number of flats in Somerset Court, Gosport, Hampshire, during the early hours of Wednesday morning.

As the occupants slept, the flames spread and took hold.

Jay Payne, 26, was one of the occupants of the flats and was asleep on the top floor of the three-storey block with his wife and two daughters, aged seven and four.

He was woken up by a fire alarm and opened the door just to see smoke and flames spilling in.

But as the blaze tore through the building, the terrified dad was forced to take extreme action to ensure the safety of his young kids.

Residents were throwing mattresses down onto the ground for children to land on (Hants Fire and Rescue)

Jay was said to have screamed “somebody please catch my children” before he was able to drop his daughters from the window, into the arms of a neighbour all the time as the flames grew.

After that, he and his wife had to leap to safety too.

Speaking to The Sun, Jay said: "The whole place went black. We were screaming at the top of our lungs for someone to help us.

"I chucked a mattress out the window and threw my kids out and then my wife and myself jumped.

"It was very traumatising... my four-year-old daughter has burns up her arms from her fingertips to her shoulders. The whole flat has gone - we've got nothing left."

Neighbour James Matthew recalled to the outlet how Jay was screaming for help with getting his kids out, describing it as “awful”.

One desperate dad pleaded with neighbours to catch his children as he dropped them nearly 30ft (Hants Fire and Rescue)

James was able to catch her first daughter, but after Jay dropped the second immediately after, James, along with a second neighbour, were able to break her fall.

Jode Mills, another resident, described how mattresses were being flung from the windows onto the ground to break the falls of children.

However, police are now treating the blaze as suspicious and told the Mirror that they were conducting investigations.

A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary told the Mirror that police were called at 12.39am on May 10 to the fire and that all flats were successfully evacuated.

The Fire service confirmed that four people were taken to hospital for burns, smoke inhalation, and precautionary checks.

Alongside the people rescued, four dogs and three cats were also saved by firefighters.