A LONDON couple drove more than 200 miles to say thank-you to the Chagford firemen who saved their seven-week-old baby's life.

Little Cosmo Hamilton-Davies is set to make a full recovery after suffering smoke inhalation and radiated heat burns in a fire at his grandparents' home in Chagford last month.

The baby's mother said this week she could never thank the brigade enough for what they had done for her son.

'They were magnificent,' said Colette Hamilton-Davies. 'Every decision they made was the right one and it's down to their actions that Cosmo is here today.'

She said although she and her husband were Londoners they had been made to feel like part of the Chagford community.

'We wanted to come back and say thank-you because the firefighters are fantastic and we feel very lucky,' added Mrs Hamilton-Davies.

The child had been sleeping in a pram in a bedroom when the fire started from an electrical fault — he was plucked from the blaze by his mother, who was alerted to strange cries on the baby monitor downstairs. Two minutes later the room erupted into an inferno.

Firefighters administered oxygen to the child at the scene and during the dash to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in a police car. Cosmo was transferred to Bristol Children's Hospital where he spent days in intensive care.

Mrs Hamilton-Davies said the decision was made by firemen not to use water gel to cool Cosmo down because they felt being so small he might get hypothermia.

'They did everything right and decided not to wait for the ambulance,' she said. 'We (the family) were all in a state of shock and were not capable of making any decisions at the time.

'The crew were 100 per cent professional and so caring — I have been getting phone calls from the firemen to see how Cosmo is. If this happened in London I do not think we would have got the follow up.'

She said her son, who had throat burns and broken blood vessels, was not fully recovered yet but he was getting better day by day.

'Little babies grow skin tissue every day and he really is doing fantastically well,' she said.

Chagford Fire Station commander Iain Rice said it was nice that the family came back to see the crew on the station's open day and he was really chuffed to see the baby 'looking so well'.

'It was one of those remarkable things — had the baby been anywhere else in the room he would not have survived and he was also in a pram and not the moses basket so he had a lot more protection,' he said.

'All the things were in his favour and babies and young children have remarkable powers of recuperation.'

Leading firefighter Kevin Coombe, who made the decision not to use the water gel and administered oxygen to the baby, said he had a young baby himself and the experience at the time was an upsetting one.

'I felt like it could be my child,' he said. 'But I just did what I have been trained to do over the last eight years.

'We have been to lots of incidents and rescued people but this is the first time I have seen someone again in a more relaxed situation — it makes it all worthwhile.

'You join the fire brigade to help the community and it is very satisfying to think you have done something good.'