TWO brothers have told of their escape from a fire which tore through a house and killed three pet dogs, two snakes and a parrot.

Rickie Higgs, of Evenlode Close, Bicester, woke up to find flames roaring through his house at about 2am yesterday.

Mr Higgs' brother, Lee, 24, was asleep upstairs and Rickie dashed to the hallway in a bid to raise the alarm. But he was overcome by smoke and had to rush outside, gasping for air - before returning to the burning building to try again.

He eventually managed to wake his brother and the two men ran outside and knocked on neighbours' doors to raise the alarm.

Mr Higgs, a car park attendant, said: "I just woke up, turned round and saw flames in the house. I tried shouting upstairs, but because it was full of smoke I could not really shout.

"So I came out of the house to get fresh air and came back. I did that three times."

Mr Higgs said: "I have lost everything. I had actually got two of the dogs on the back of my legs when I woke. I got up and did call them, but they didn't come."

The brothers were taken to hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation and shock. They are now staying with relatives.

Firefighters checked everyone was evacuated before sealing off the row of six terraced houses.

Incident commander Paul Molloy said the blaze could easily have been fatal.

He said: "It started on the ground floor and spread up. It's almost as severe as you can get - these days you don't get much worse. Had they been in there another five minutes there would have been a very different outcome."

The cause of the fire is being investigated, but police said it was not suspicious.