Jay Payne recalled ‘screaming at the top of our lungs for somebody to help us’ (Pictures: Hants Fire and Rescue)

A desperate dad begged neighbours to catch his two young daughters as he dropped them nearly 30 feet from the top floor window of a blazing block of flats.

Jay Payne, 26, was woken up by the fire alarm shortly after midnight on Wednesday as his apartment in Somerset Court, Gosport, Hampshire, went up in flames.

After hurling mattresses out to break their fall, he dropped the girls, aged seven and four, into the arms of residents who had already fled their own homes before he and his wife escaped.

Jay said: ‘The whole flat has gone – we’ve got nothing left.’

Dozens of firefighters were scrambled to tackle the blaze, which is being investigated as an arson attack.

Families from 23 flats were saved, four people taken to hospital with burns, smoke inhalation and for checks. Four dogs and three cats were also rescued.

Jay said: ‘We’d woken up to the fire alarm, I opened the door and flames and smoke came through.

‘The whole place went black. We were screaming at the top of our lungs for someone to help us.

‘I chucked a mattress out the window and threw my kids out and then my wife and myself jumped.

‘It was very traumatising…my four-year-old daughter has burns up her arms from her fingertips to her shoulders.’

Jay Payne was woken by the fire alarm as flames ripped through his flat (Picture: Hants Fire and Rescue)

Shocked neighbour James Matthews said: ‘He was pleading with anybody, please somebody please help me, somebody please catch my children, somebody please help us and it was awful somebody fearing for their life.

‘He dropped the first girl and I’ve caught her under her armpits pretty straight sort of catch and then he’s dropped the second girl afterwards and I believe there was another neighbour we sort of broke her fall together.’

Another resident, Jodie Mills, said: ‘Mattresses were being flung out on to the ground so that the children could land on it.

‘People were breaking their falls, people got burnt. Lots and lots of smoke.’

Nev Lewendon, station manager for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, said: ‘People were screaming, panic had ensued throughout some of those flats worried about evacuation.

Four people were taken to hospital (Picture: Hants Fire and Rescue)

‘So the crews turned up and rapidly put up ladders to help with these people who needed evacuating.

‘In some cases people were helped down ladders, others were actually helped out windows as well.

‘It was a fierce fire initially through that middle block, going up through the centre, which is where that stairwell is.

‘I’m really proud of the teams that were here on site initially and the ones that have come afterwards to just get involved and trying to get this fire extinguished.’

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said: ‘The fire is currently being treated as suspicious, and police remain on scene making enquiries with the fire service.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact police on 101, quoting reference number 44230182829.

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‘He was pleading with anybody, please somebody please help me, somebody please catch my children.’