Devastation after blaze rips through 6 homes
AERIAL photography shows the ravage caused after a fire started in an empty house.
Six prefabricated homes were destroyed and up to 100 residents were ordered to evacuate at the height of the blaze.
Photographer Dean Gellatly said he came out of his home, on the Bransholme estate in Hull, to find a thick black cloud of smoke.
Dean, 50, said: “It was harrowing – you couldn’t see.
David Pilditch
A MURDERER who campaigned for years to be freed says he wants to be allowed to stay in jail after 52 years as he will be lonely outside.
Thomas Fairfax, 78, has been told that the Parole Board will consider his case next month and he fears it will order his freedom.
He claims he has built a life for himself in jail and faces loneliness back in society.
He said: “I have turned my back on the outside world.
“It holds no interest for me now. I’ve made a life for myself inside.”
The former public schoolboy, then 26, was sentenced to life in 1968 for the murder of a newly-wed woman.
Under his original name Roger Payne, he pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey to murdering Claire Josephs, 20, whose throat was cut at her flat in Bromley, south-east London. Despite being eligible
Samantha Yule
There were cars pulling over at the side of the road and people stopping in the streets because you could not see anything but black smoke.”
It is believed the fire started in an empty house in the terrace of prefabs, and then ripped through the adjoining houses.
Nobody was injured in the blaze on Friday morning. Two people have been arrested in connection with the drama.
The families who live in the homes were allowed back briefly over the weekend to salvage some belongings.
The council said that it is providing them with emergency accommodation.
Jennie Smith, landlady of Skippers Tavern, opened the pub as a drop-off point for donations and has been inundated with clothes, appliances, toys and mattresses for the homeless families.
She said: “We knew we had to do all we could to help.”
Police are asking for anyone with information on how the fire began to come forward.
Detective Inspector Simon Vickers, of Humberside Police, said: “A joint investigation will now take place with the fire service.”