Teenage yobs tried to break into fire engines in Bristol while crews saved five children – including a four-day-old baby – from a burning house.

Firefighters arrived at the house in Charfield Road, Southmead, after an oven caught fire.

But as they evacuated mother-of-five Tamsin Vining and her children and started to fight the fire at her terrace council home, two teenagers tried to break into the appliances parked outside. The attempted theft has been condemned as "disgusting" by Miss Vining and "despicable" by a fire union official.

Miss Vining and her children needed hospital treatment for smoke inhalation after the fire, which broke out at around 7.15pm on Monday.

She and her baby son were kept overnight at Frenchay Hospital for observation after being given oxygen.

The 28-year-old is outraged that, while crews from Patchway and Southmead fire stations fought to extinguish the flames, one of their vehicles was targeted by yobs from a large gang, who tried to break into it.

Miss Vining, who works for sandwich shop chain Subway, said: "I think it's disgusting that they did that.

"If the situation was different and those firemen had needed to get equipment to save us, we could be dead.

"It makes my blood boil just thinking about it.

"I heard a fireman call for the police. He said loads of young people had been trying to break into the truck.

"There was loads of them there – I guess kids aged about five to 15-years-old.

"I'd say there was about 20 of them – some were on bikes."

She said she did not know how her oven, which she was pre-heating before doing some cooking, had caught fire as she was "meticulous" about checking it.

Miss Vining suffered smoke inhalation as she tried to deal with the fire and was still in the house when firefighters arrived.

She said: "I wasn't frightened at first but when we got into the fire engine, I was shaking."

An Avon Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman confirmed that, during the incident, youths had attempted to break into the appliances.

Pictures of those responsible are believed to have been captured by a camera on one of the fire engines.

Police were called and are investigating the incident.

Two firefighters put out the blaze using carbon dioxide extinguishers.

Kevin Herniman , a regional official of the Fire Brigades Union, said the attempted theft was "despicable".

He said: "Unreported attacks on firefighters are on the increase. Recent figures show there are about 40 a week.

"If people try to break in, it can sometimes end in an altercation if our firemen try to stop them.

"There have been incidents in the past where thieves have tried to steal from fire engines while firefighters are doing their best to help the community.

"Unfortunately you do sometimes get these mindless vandals stealing things they're probably just going to flog on the internet."

Miss Vining's neighbour Emma Souch, 28, said: "The firemen knocked on my door and asked if I had any blankets for the baby because they didn't want her to go back inside. We get a lot of trouble round here. Kids pinching cars – things like that."

Passer-by Douglas Chinn, 58, from Henleaze, Bristol, who took photographs of the aftermath of the incident, said: "The kids who tried to break in were on bikes so they disappeared before they got caught. I don't know what they were trying to do. I can't imagine there's anything worth stealing from a fire engine."