YOUNG mum Hayley Squibb fears her flat could be a potential death-trap after the fourth fire in two years broke out just metres away.

Hayley and her partner Martyn Guest - the father of her three-month-old son Benjamin - watched in horror recently as 10ft high flames raged from a wheelie bin near a communal door.

"The smoke was coming into the flat through the keyhole so I put cotton wool in there so the baby wouldn't breathe any in," said Hayley, 20, who lives in a second-floor flat in a small housing block in Kendrick Lane, Stroud.

"If the fire had spread to the communal door we wouldn't have been able to get out.

"I was panicking and all I could think of was Benjamin."

The fire happened just after Christmas and the couple are worried it could happen again.

Mr Guest, 36, wants the bins - which are just three metres from the door - chained or fenced up.

Last year a pushchair left even closer to the door was set alight.

The couple can't be sure arsonists are responsible but say people often loiter in the dimly lit alleyway between the High Street and Threadneedle Street.

"It needs better lighting then people might not go down there as much to hang around," said Hayley.

"We have suggested CCTV cameras and all the flatmates say they would like gates that we could lock to be put up at each end."

The block is owned by Gloucestershire Housing Association.

Central services manager Jacki Rossiter said doors at the flats were fire resistant.

"The building complies with regulations and would have gone through building control which in turn consults with the fire service," she said.

"We would be more than happy to work with the council and police on this but as yet nothing has been reported to us."