Tea light blaze engulfs home as family are asleep
MUM AND CHILDREN FLEE FOR THEIR LIVES AS ALL POSSESSIONS DESTROYED
A MUM and her children have been left with nothing after a fire caused by tea light candles tore through their family home.
Angela Smith was sleeping on the sofa at her home in Mill Hill, Little Hulton, Salford, when she was woken up by a smoke alarm.
She rushed upstairs to discover a fire had started in her daughter’s bedroom and frantically began trying to put it out with a towel.
But the flames began to spread so Angela grabbed her three-year-old son Alfie, her 12-year-old daughter Demi and 13-year-old niece Ella from the bathroom, before rushing outside.
The firefighters arrived at around 11.30pm and tackled the blaze, while Angela watched on in horror.
It was discovered the fire was caused by tea lights her daughter lit and left unattended in the bedroom while she went to take a bath.
They set light to a television they were next to, before the flames then ripped through the rest of the privately-rented property.
The fire left the house completely gutted, with the ceiling collapsing in her daughter’s bedroom.
All of the family possessions, including their clothes, were destroyed by the flames.
Daughter Demi lost photographs and a shrine to her father who tragically died in 2010 aged just 29.
There were also items destroyed belonging to Angela’s late mother.
Since the tragedy the community of Little Hulton has rallied to help replace possessions and an online fundraising page has been set up to help rebuild the home.
Angela, 32, told the M.E.N.: “The fire brigade came and fitted fire alarms at the end of 2015. If they had not done that we would have all gone up. It spread so quick. I can’t thank them enough for what they did – they were brilliant.”
She added: “It is really bad, it is gutted. The whole of the upstairs is damaged.
“We have no clothes, no nothing. The ceiling has gone in the bedroom that it happened in, smoke damage, it is black, everything is just black. I have not got contents insurance, I am going to have to buy everything from scratch. It has taken nine years to build my home. “I want to get my kids sorted, my neighbours had to buy them a uniform, we have nothing.” Angela, who is now living with family, is warning other teenagers to take care when using tea lights and candles. She said the response of the community had been overwhelming, with workmen and neighbours showing up at the front door to help out. A Greater Manchester Fire Service spokesman said: “At 11.26pm on Sunday, April 30, three fire engines were mobilised to a house fire in Mill Hill, Little Hulton, Worsley. “The fire had begun in the bedroom of a semi-detached house and fire fighters used four breathing apparatus and two hose reels to extinguish it. “Firefighters remained at scene for roughly two hours.” To make a donation to the fundraising campaign visit www. gofundme.com/little-hulton-familyhouse-fire Angela Smith the