Neighbours dodged flames to rouse sleeping residents after an historical mansion went up in flames.

Keith Mair, who lives with his wife Lorraine and daughter Abie on the hill overlooking Scalesceugh Hall, at Carleton near Carlisle, was the first person to raise the alarm after fire broke out on Tuesday night.

“Abie’s just started at the University of Cumbria, so she was at a fresher’s week event that night,” he recalled. “I was bringing her back from town, just after 11pm.

“We both headed straight to bed, but after about five minutes Abie came to ask if I’d heard a popping sound. I told her it was probably coming from a nearby farmer’s field.

“A few minutes later there were more pops, getting louder and I thought something wasn’t right.

“I looked out of my bedroom window, which looks right onto the hall, and it was like Christmas tree lights.”

Keith dialled 999 before racing to the hall to try and wake the neighbours, as he watched the flames getting out of control.

“The sight was unbelievable,” he said.

Keith’s mother and father-in law, Bert and Audrey Knight, live only feet from the hall, and so he headed straight to their home.

“I ran down to the hall, then headed round the corner to the villas to get my mother and father-in-law out.

“There was a lot of smoke, and the flames were quite high. I didn’t know which way the flames were going to travel,” Keith recalled.

“When I ran round the side, the flames were coming out of the windows at that point - it was difficult to get by.

“Thankfully, I could see Shirley - who lives next door to Audrey and Bert - coming out of her house as I was coming round the corner.”

Once he reached Bert and Audrey’s home, who are 87 and 85 respectively, he made sure they left immediately.

“I linked arms with both of them and helped them round the corner.

“I took them as far away from the flames as I could,” he said. “I could see the firefighters coming. I shouted for help, because both Bert and Audrey are frail.

“The popping and banging from the fire was so loud, the firefighters couldn’t hear me.”

Guiding his in-laws to safety, Keith then returned to the scene to see if he could help further.

“By then more emergency services had arrived,” he said. “The whole thing was surreal.

“We’ve been there nearly 20 years, it was so sad to see the hall go up in flames.”

Audrey said she and husband Bert had been asleep when the fire broke out, but had first been alerted to the fire by a call from her daughter Lorraine.

With Keith being a long-distance delivery driver, Audrey said her first fear was that the late-night call was news of an accident involving Keith.

“I knew Keith was on the M1 at the time,” she explained. “At first when she said there was a fire at the hall, I was relieved. So it didn’t quite sink in at first.”

Audrey said it was awful to see such a mainstay of the area engulfed in flames.

“We lived in High Hesket for 50 years. This was the place we always came to for garden parties and events to help the cerebral palsy charity, who used to be here, with fundraisers.”

Audrey’s daughter Lorraine said it was her daughter Abie who deserved praise for first noticing that something terrible was happening on Tuesday night.

“Despite Keith making the initial call, it was our daughter Abie that alerted him,” she said. “It could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for their quick-thinking and actions.”

She added that the experience had left her parents quite overwhelmed.

“They were traumatised and shaken, which could only be expected as they are in their late eighties.”

Lorraine stressed that the fire service, which were first directed to the hall by Keith over the phone, had done a spectacular job fighting the blaze.

“They should be commended on their professionalism for containing the fire to the hall itself and controlling the inferno so as not to spread to the surrounding properties,” said Lorraine. “For that, a heartfelt thank you.”

She added that as the centrepiece of the local landscape that has been their family’s home for the last 16 years, it was sad to see the hall now gutted.

“Over the last 16 years we have looked at it head on coming up the drive,” said Lorraine. “[To be] replaced with its derelict remains and emptiness of its former glory is devastating.”

The hall was in the process of being converted into retirement flats.

About 40 firefighters tackled the blaze at its height, and crews were still at the scene yesterday, damping down. The cause is not yet known, but it’s not believed to be suspicious.