Community rallies to help family who fled house blaze
ATHANKFUL dad says the most important thing is that his family are all safe after flames ripped through their home.
Firefighters rushed to the house in Stacksteads on the evening of December 4, after Tony Lowe had an accident while doing building work in the kitchen.
Thankfully Tony, 53, was able to quickly alert his wife Rose, daughter Racheal, five, and son Taylor, one, and get them all safely out of the house, on Newchurch Road. They were taken to hospital for precautionary checks for smoke inhalation, while Tony suffered a minor burn to his hand after going back into the house to try to put out the blaze.
Fire crews were at the scene for five hours and said the kitchen was severely damaged with the rest of the house suffering extensive smoke logging.
This week Tony, who is helpfully a plasterer, has been racing against the clock to get the house habitable again for his family well in time for Christmas, while they have also been helped by an “overwhelming” outpouring of support and donations from the local community.
Tony told the Free Press he got his family out within less than five minutes, but burnt his hand grabbing hold of a chair that was on fire.
He said: “I made the mistake of coming back in the house, so I’ve been barking like a dog! I did try to put the fire out; things can be replaced, but my family cannot.
“I was doing some building work, I made a schoolboy error and it shorted out, but I’ve just got to get it right. My family are safe, that’s the main thing. It could have been a hell of a lot worse.
“I’ve been sleeping in the house because I’ve been worried about people breaking in.”
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service also warned that the property had no working smoke alarms, meaning if the fire had happened during the night the alarm might not have been raised. They urged residents to fit smoke alarms and check them regularly.
Tony said their experience was a cautionary tale, as they also had no insurance and he has had to borrow a large amount of money from a friend to carry out repair works. He hopes they can all move back in by this weekend.
He added: “I’m a plasterer by trade so I can get pretty much everything done. We are battling through it. The fire brigade were fantastic. They were still here until 11.30.”