Several ‘seriously hurt’ in house fire
DAD DESCRIBES MOMENT INFERNO TOOK HOLD ON STREET
SEVERAL people have suffered serious injuries after a fire ripped through a row of houses in Ravensthorpe – with one man describing the moment he was ordered to flee his home with his family.
Emergency services raced to the scene shortly after midnight after reports of a fire in Queen Street. Multiple fire crews rushed to the incident, with two crews still in attendance at the scene yesterday afternoon, which was being guarded by police. Terrified residents were ordered to leave their homes.
One man told Yorkshire Live how the fire grew “worse and worse every half an hour”. The Queen Street resident, who did not want to be named, fled his home in the early hours of the morning, along with his wife, daughter, son, and son-in-law.
The family, who were praying at the time, were up because of Ramadan when they saw the fire. They had to stay with relatives overnight as they were told to leave their house. Their loft was affected by the fire.
He said: “First we didn’t know what was happening. We came out and saw the fire, it was getting worse and worse every half an hour. We haven’t been told when we can go back inside, we’re just waiting for information. We have all our insurance documents inside even my mobile phone. I didn’t get a chance to get it. We were only able to go back inside to get my wife’s medication.”
A mum of three, who moved from Leeds to the area, said: “I got woken up at around 12.20am. I could see fire engines so could tell there was a fire. I woke up to police banging doors telling people to get out. I’m hoping everyone got out. There was a lot of commotion.”
Asked about how they felt waking up to the scene, she added: “We’re used to it, it’s rough around here. I was looking on the internet to find more information about what was happening and in the last year three people have been stabbed.”
At least six families were not yet able to return to their homes, according to one resident, who shared an account of his experience on Facebook. At around 6am, the man wrote: “The whole block was evacuated and 6 families are still not able to go home, mine included. One house is completely burnt and few others got damaged.”
A resident at the scene also told Yorkshire Live they saw the damaged property. “It’s gone through the whole house. No one will be able to live there for a while,” the man said.
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said: “It came in at four minutes past midnight, a report of a house fire, attended by a significant number of police, fire and ambulance.
“Several people were removed from the address and taken to hospital with serious injury.”