A MUM badly injured in a fire at her home says it’s a miracle she’s alive.

Jo Walker was badly burned, broke four ribs, and suffered severe leg and foot injuries after an unguarded tealight set fire to a dressing gown in her bedroom.

She was forced to jump from her bedroom window to escape.

Now Jo, of Warminster, wants to thank NHS staff, emergency services paramedics, firefighters and neighbours who helped to save her life.

The 50-year-old has just been discharged by the Royal United in Bath after spending 15 days recovering from the injuries she sustained in the blaze at her home in Boreham Field, Warminster, on May 1.

Jo said: “It’s a miracle that I’m still alive. If my next-door neighbours hadn’t raised the alarm I would have died in the blaze.”

She paid tribute to neighbours Billie and Chris Holder, and their daughter Faith, who were the first to hear her screams for help and dialled 999.

“My neighbours are wonderful. They are absolutely lovely. I could not wish for better.

“I am told that Faith was woken up by my smoke alarm and alerted her parents, who raised the alarm.

“I also owe my life to every single member of the emergency services people who attended, the fire service, the police and the paramedics. Without them, I would be dead.”

Jo suffered burns to her right arm and shoulder, her left arm, and a flash burn to her forehead and nose from the flames.

The worst injuries she sustained were those incurred when she jumped from the upstairs window in a desperate bid to escape the flames and thick black smoke that engulfed her bedroom.

“I broke four ribs and severed the tendons in my right foot. I can’t move two of my toes. I also had fragments of glass embedded in my right leg and bruising all over.”

Jo says the fire started with a tealight she had lit on a bedside table while watching a DVD film in bed.

“I must have nodded off and had left the bedroom door open for my two cats to go in and out. The flame from the tealight must have caught my dressing gown hanging on the back of the door.

“I was woken by my smoke alarm and saw that the dressing gown, door and door frame were all well alight. There were flames from the floor to the ceiling.

“The heat was unbelievable and the room was full of thick black smoke.

“After getting out of bed, I pulled my duvet over me but then realised the duvet was also on fire.

“By then, I was panicking and screaming for help because I couldn’t open the window. It was one of those that only opens two or three inches. I’ve no idea how I got out. I have no recollection of jumping although my injuries indicate that I must have.”

The next thing Jo remembers is waking up two days later in intensive care at the RUH. “I was on a ventilator and the sound woke me up. “I can’t sing the praises of the NHS staff enough, from the surgeon who operated on my foot, to the nurses and cleaners. They are absolutely amazing.”

Jo has been rehoused in a one-bedroom bungalow at Springhead in Sutton Veny while Selwood Housing arranges for her two-bedroom home in Warminster to be repaired.