CHRISTMAS DAY FIRE DESTROYED OUR HOME
FAMILY OF FIVE LEFT WITH NOTHING BUT THE CLOTHES THEY WERE WEARING WHEN BLAZE BROKE OUT AT THREE-STOREY HOUSE
A FAMILY of five who escaped a devastating house fire on Christmas Day say they have lost everything but the clothes they were wearing.
Six fire engines and 40 firefighters were sent to the blaze which broke out at about 4.30pm at a three-storey house at Merganser Court in Barry.
Mum of three Ann-Marie Mohammed said she felt “extremely lucky” to have escaped with her children and sister in law, who was staying as a guest at the time.
The 34-year-old said: “There’s nothing left. There’s no upstairs, no roof, no windows and we can’t go inside because it isn’t safe.
“But if I hadn’t come home when I did, it would have been much worse.”
Ann-Marie said she and her three children could smell smoke as they arrived home from their grandparents at about 4.25pm.
Her 25-year-old sister-in-law, who was staying to help with childcare over the Christmas period, was asleep on the first floor.
“We went up to the first-floor kitchen level and it was a bit smokey,” Ann-Marie said.
“But at the top level you couldn’t see, it was full of smoke. You couldn’t see anything.”
Ann-Marie said she woke her sister-inlaw, and told her 12-year-old son to take her daughters aged three and eight back out of the house.
The two women then approached a storage cupboard where the smoke appeared to be coming from.
They opened the cupboard door and small embers began flying out and landing on the carpet.
“It lit the carpet. We were trying to put water on it but it wasn’t really working,” she said.
“We ran down the stairs and out then. It went full to the ceiling in about three seconds.
“We were running down the stairs and we looked up and it was all on fire so we just legged it out of the house then.”
She added: “The smoke alarm didn’t go off until the glass in the windows popped. The fire was blazing through the house for a good few minutes before the smoke alarm went off.”
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service was called and the blaze was brought under control by about 8pm.
The five family members were treated for smoke inhalation as a precaution, but all were unharmed.
Ann-Marie said her husband Abdul Mohammed, 34, is currently visiting family in Ghana, but hopes to get a flight back to the UK in the next few days.
Meanwhile, Ann-Marie’s sister, Paula Anne Moore, has set up a fundraising page. By yesterday afternoon, more than £430 had been raised for the family.
Paula wrote: “The whole house is gone, Christmas presents, iPad, clothes, shoes, furniture.
“They have nothing but the clothes on their bodies. I can’t imagine this happening to anyone, let alone my own sister. She is truly devastated and the children are gutted at what they have lost.”
To make a donation visit gofundme. com/8zxh5m-house-fire-christmasday