A sharp-eyed 3-year-old boy who noticed smoke coming from the roof in a Durban children's home has been hailed as a hero after he raised the alarm which lead to the safe evacuation of all 55 children before a fire gutted the building on Tuesday night.

The fire broke out in a cottage in the wing of the Edith Benson Children’s Home‚ which houses 55 children in the baby and toddler section‚ shortly before 8pm. The children and 12 child and youth care workers who were with the children‚ were evacuated before firefighters tried to bring the blaze under control.

The fire spread to other cottages and destroyed the kitchen‚ lounge‚ and dining and play areas.

The home is run by the non-governmental organisation‚ Child Welfare Durban.

Edith Benson Children's Home manager Firdose Moola‚ who was one of the first to respond to the fire. told the social development MEC Weziwe Thusi‚ who conducted an in-loco inspection on Wednesday morning‚ that as soon as the 3-year-old notified the child care worker‚ she alerted her colleagues and the children were all taken to safety.

Moola said that an alarm‚ triggered by the smoke‚ had gone off while the evacuation was taking place.

"The children and staff regularly do fire drills and this is why they were able to evacuate so quickly‚ " she said.

The facility also houses the William Clarke Children's Home‚ which accommodates 40 teenagers. The facility wasn't affected by the fire.

Thusi said department staff‚ in liaison with officials from the home‚ moved the children to four other child care centres.

"We are now waiting for a court order‚ because when you move a child from where he or she is‚ you need a court order and this must happen within 24 hours so we are busy with this.”

She added that the staff had alerted parents to the fire and the fact that the children had been moved.

The children will receive counselling to deal with the trauma they experienced. More staff will be allocated to the homes the children were moved to in order to ensure there was sufficient compliance in terms of the ratio of care workers to children.

The MEC said the department was in the process of conducting health and safety audits at state funded and private facilities to ensure that all comply with health and safety regulations.

"We have seen some of the facilities burning‚ some of them are dilapidated and quite old. We decided as a department that we need to an audit of all our facilities - whether they are government or privately owned - as long as they are funded. But you find those there are those who are not funded and not registered‚ we will also assess them and make sure they meet the norms and standards. Some of them don't want to co-operate but we try to make sure they do‚ this one did co-operate and an assessment was done‚” said Thusi.

Tuesday night's fire follows a deadly blaze which claimed the lives of seven children and a 21-year-old at the Lakehaven Children's Home in July 2016. Ten other children and two child care workers managed to escape the blaze.