EXCLUSIVE: Five’s Ritchie Neville recalls the terrifying house fire in which he was forced to barricade himself in his bedroom and pull his partner’s children out the window to safety

Richie Neville recalls a terrifying house fire in 2018 when he was forced to pull his then-partner’s children out of a window to safety after the family barricaded them in their bedroom.

The Five singer, 43, spoke exclusively to MailOnline about the ‘nightmare’ incident that ‘devastated everything’ at the property.

Ritchie, who shares daughter Ella, now nine, with Atomic Kitten’s Natasha Hamilton said: ‘We all went to bed super early around 8pm because we were done – I can’t remember why’.

“It was September and it was actually a candle that had burned out, and when we turned off the lights you couldn’t tell it was still burning.”

“It was in a metal container and refused to get out and it made the metal red hot and while we all slept it had been sitting under it and smoldering for hours and hours.”

Family: The Five singer, 43, spoke exclusively to MailOnline about the ‘nightmare’ incident that ‘devastated everything’ at the property (pictured as a family)

Ritchie, whose own daughter was not home at the time of the fire, said: “My partner had heard walking on the landing at the time and she thought one of the girls was going to come in, but that was imaginary.”

“But it had made her stink and she nudged me and said, ‘Can you smell smoke?’ And the moment the air hit my nose, I could smell it right away’.

He continued, “It was kind of smoky in the room, and I opened the door and I couldn’t see an inch down the hallway.”

“It was a wall of black smoke. It was really scary so I ran around the house trying to get the girls down the hall to their rooms. I had no idea where the fire was or what was going on.”

“So we barricaded ourselves in the bedroom, opened all the windows and put the classic (bed) quilts around the door edges and dialed 999.”

He continued, “Eventually we started screaming for help to a neighbor who yelled, ‘We need a ladder,’ and oddly enough, he had just moved in and the old man was just clearing out some stuff that had been left behind (from the previous owner), and randomly one of the things was a ladder,

“He literally had it in his front yard. So he grabbed it and threw it over the wall and in seconds I was handing it out to the kids.”

Ritchie said that despite the house being fitted with fire alarms, none of them went off at night.

Daughter: Ritchie’s own daughter Ella, now nine, who he shares with Atomic Kitten’s Natasha Hamilton was not home at the time (pictured together)

Terror: Ritchie said that despite the house being fitted with fire alarms, none of them went off at night

Discussing the aftermath, he recalled returning to the property to find all his “worldly possessions thrown away.”

“It was more smoke damage and just blackened everywhere. I came back a week later, and the company that checked the house did its job, and when I came back the house was completely empty.”

“I was like, ‘Where’s all my stuff?’ And they told me, “It’s all gone.” They even threw out the glassware and I said “that could have been cleaned right?” I came back to find that all my worldly possessions had been thrown away – apart from the Brit Award. It was certainly an experience’.

He revealed that the cherished award he won with the band in 2000 survived the flames and was sent away to be properly cleaned and restored.

Safe: He revealed that the precious prize he won with Five in 2000 survived the flames and was sent away to be properly cleaned and restored (pictured in 1998)