A QUICK-THINKING mum stretched a duvet tightly over her bedroom door to stop toxic fumes and smoke harming her young children when a blaze broke out in the family's Bromsgrove flat.

Tracy Whitehouse, aged 22, was woken by thick, choking smoke billowing from the kitchen of her second floor flat in Austin Road, Charford, at 7.30am on Monday.

She woke her partner, 27-year-old Stuart Burford, who clutched a wet towel to his nose and mouth and managed to put the fire out.

Tracy grabbed their two children -- Chloe, aged four, and Stuart, two, and bundled them into her bedroom.

"The room was full of thick smoke which continued to pour through the bottom and sides of the door even though it was shut," she said .

"I flung open the window, dialled 999 on my mobile, pulled the duvet off the bed and held it over the door to stop the smoke coming in."

Firefighters from Bromsgrove led the family outside after opening up the flat.

Tracy said it was pure instinct that made her seek refuge in the bedroom rather than try to escape through the smoke -- made worse by melting polystyrene ceiling tiles.

"I knew it would be harmful, if not impossible, to try to battle through the smoke because it was so thick," she said.

Playing down her own part in the drama, she said: "Stuart is my hero. He put the fire out and saved us."

The fire, which gutted the kitchen and smoke-logged the rest of the building, began when a chip pan caught light.

The family received hospital treatment for smoke inhalation.

A fire brigade spokesman praised Tracy's action. "In this case she did the right thing as her escape route was blocked," he said.