Angela Brown, 31, died trying to pull her family from a blaze at their home in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, last Sunday morning.

The 13-year-old and two other boys, aged 15, have also been charged with theft.

The three, all from Kilwinning, made no plea or declaration and were remanded in custody after appearing at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.

The fire, in the town's Culzean Place, broke out at about 6am last Sunday. Brown managed to get her youngest child, three-year-old daughter Kassie, out of the building before going back in to try to save her two sons, Sean, 12, and Kyle, six.

However, she was overcome by the intensity of the blaze and is understood to have collapsed on the stairs.

She and her sons were pulled from the flat by fire crews, but Brown died in Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock.

Her sons were initially treated at Crosshouse Hospital, but were later moved to Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Sick Children where they are in a serious but stable condition.

Brown's two other children, Nikki, 15, and Sean's twin Declan, had been at friends' houses at the time.

Angela's former partner George Armstrong, 34, has been at the boys' bedsides.

His mother Mary, 53, said: "George and Angela split up two years ago, but they were on good terms.

"She lived for these kids. It's just awful. Now five children have lost a mother. She saved her children, but she paid the ultimate price. She lived for her kids and now she has died for them."

Neighbour Jonathan Poole-Smith, 17, said: "Kassie was outside screaming and crying. I put a blanket on her and called the fire brigade, who came very quickly and rescued the others. But Angela died saving Kassie. It's just so sad."

Smith phoned 999 while he took Kassie to another house and checked to see if he could help anyone else. But nobody could hear his shouts and the flames were too intense, so he had to wait for the fire brigade to arrive.

Another neighbour said: "I know that Angela got her youngest, Kassie, out. She then went back in to get the boys, but must have been overcome by smoke. She was a lovely woman and, of course, everyone around here is devastated."

• A man has been arrested in connection with a house fire in which a baby girl died. Eight-month-old Annalise Middleton was killed in the blaze at a house in Brae, Shetland, on September 20.