A family of six escaped with their lives when a fire broke out at their Malvern home.

Spencer and Amanda Butler, who live with their four children in Elgar Avenue, woke at 3am on Wednesday to find their tumble dryer in the hall on fire and billowing smoke.

Mrs Butler ran upstairs, past the fire, to rescue her sleeping children, while suffering the effect of smoke inhalation.

"I woke up coughing but didn't know what was going on until I smelt the smoke," she said.

"I shouted 'fire!' to Spencer and ran up to get the kids, but I was choking all the way, the smell was horrible and toxic."

While Mrs Butler waited with the children outside, her husband ran back inside the smoke-filled house to phone the fire brigade.

He was forced to leave the family's two dogs inside after they ran and hid, but firefighters later rescued them.

Mrs Butler was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene, but the rest of the family, including eight-month-old baby Owen, were unharmed.

"The children thought it was exciting, they were asking questions and were really interested," said Mrs Butler

"It hasn't really sunk in yet."

The couple do not know why the tumble dryer caught fire.

"We'd been using it for nine years and everything seemed fine," said Mrs Butler.

"We'd just put the kids' uniforms in there before we went to bed."

After the incident sub-officer Saul Bolton said the family had a lucky escape.

"Their smoke detector was disconnected so they didn't get a really early warning," he said.

"By the time we got there, there were flames by the front door."

Sub-officer Bolton said the family did the right thing leaving the dogs and not endangering themselves, as animals breathe at a much lower level than people and usually survive.

The Butlers say they have nothing but praise for the firefighters and will make sure their smoke alarm is fully functioning in the future.

The couple said they had disconnected the alarm after getting fed up of beeping noises.