A BABY’S first birthday party ended in disaster when a kitchen floor suddenly collapsed and those celebrating, including young children, plummeted into the cellar below.

The incident at a Bradford house could have been much worse if quick thinking party-goers hadn’t blown out birthday cake candles seconds after the accident – preventing a gas leak, caused by the damage, from igniting.

The baby’s 29-year-old pregnant mother, a 22-year-old woman and a three-year-old were taken to hospital for check-ups and seven people treated by paramedics.

The family have been forced to move out of their home and structural surveyors are now investigating. Some of those involved said they thought they would die when the floor fell from beneath their feet.

The baby’s uncle David Swift described the scene as “pandemonium” adding: “There were about ten people in the kitchen and then the next minute the floor caved in.

“The cooker was ripped off the wall and there were kids falling into the cellar. There was gas everywhere. People were pulling kids out of the hole left, right and centre.”

Family friend Donna Baker added: “We were trying to pull babies and pregnant women out of the hole.”

Around 25 people, including children, were at the party on Saturday afternoon at a house in Parkside Road, West Bowling.

About ten guests were in the kitchen, and the candles on the cake had just been lit, when the floor started to vibrate. A corner of it gave way, causing people to drop around seven feet into the cellar. The collapse also caused the cooker to be pulled from the wall, breaking a pipe and causing gas to leak.

After the initial shock, David Swift described how he realised the danger of the birthday candles igniting the gas, and scrambled to put them out.

He added: “Everyone was trying to reach the cake, I had to climb over people to blow out the candles.”

Those who fell, including the girl's father Ryan Swift, were at further risk of kitchen furniture falling into the gaping hole, which took up a third of the room. The 22-year-old said he frantically tried to lift young children out of the void to safety.

He added: “People were trying to hold onto the worktops to stop themselves from falling into the cellar. I was holding onto my one-year-old and people were screaming to get my nieces out of the hole. I was getting them up out of the hole but I couldn’t pull myself up.”

Ryan Swift used his phone as a light and climbed the cellar stairs to get out of the basement. He added: “When it happened, for a flash I thought, ‘I’m dead.’”

Emergency services were called shortly after 3pm, including a technical rescue unit, paramedics and police. Northern Power Grid was also called to make the terraced property safe.

The family said three people were taken to hospital, including Katie Havrylak, 29 – the child’s mother, who is seven months pregnant – and a three-year-old girl, while a further seven were treated at the scene. None of the injuries are thought to have been serious.

Mr Swift and Miss Havrylak lived in the rented property with two children aged one and nine.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Watch commander Phil Warden, based at Odsal Station, said: “There was a structural collapse and a cracked gas pipe and cracked water pipe.”

He said incidents like this were very rare and that he had only attended one floor collapse at a domestic property before.

The family is now staying with relatives.