Schoolboy Joe Strachan was hailed a hero today after his quick thinking saved his family in a fire at their home.

The 13-year-old heard the smoke alarm go off in the family's ground floor and basement flat in Walton Well Road, Oxford, woke his father Jensen Edmunds and partner Sarah Hayhurst, grabbed his brother Jack, nine, and got them all out.

Divisional Fire Officer Steve Vermeulen said: "Everything he did was spot on. The family was saved by a combination of a smoke alarm and this lad's cool, calm and collected action.

"If he had not acted as he did, the family would have been trapped and it could have been fatal. He's a super lad, a real hero. Joe was going to bed at 1am when he smelled smoke, heard the alarm sound and alerted the rest of the family who quickly escaped.

When the fire brigade got there, the smoke was so thick the first crew could not see the fire.

A second crew went in with a thermal-imaging camera, found the hot-spot and tackled it.

Ms Hayhurst later praised the emergency services for their rapid response.

She said: "We've had a problem with the night storage heaters and they've been smelling. The problem was in the fuse-box. "Most of the flat is smoke-damaged. There was thick acrid smoke and we were out of there immediately. But we wouldn't have escaped if it hadn't been for the smoke detectors."