Family lose home as blaze rips through it
THE charred metal frame of a bunk bed is all that remains of a children’s bedroom after fire ripped through a family home.
Mum Kassandra Yates-Conway says her children have lost everything ‘apart from the clothes on their backs’ following the blaze at their home in Wigan Road, Westhoughton, in Bolton.
Kassandra, 33 and her four daughters, aged 15, 11, eight and five, as well as her 19-month-old son, were out at the time, having gone to stay with relatives following a power cut earlier in the evening.
When they returned several hours later, they found their home ablaze.
Kassandra said: “We had a power cut at about 8pm so I sent the children to relatives because I didn’t want them sitting in the dark and cold.
“I went to my grandma’s house with my eldest daughter and got a message later in the evening saying the power was back.
“When I came home I tried to switch the lights on and the house was full of smoke.”
Crews arrived at the scene at about 11.15pm and managed to bring the blaze under control. However, clothes, toys, cots and beds belonging to the children have all been destroyed.
Hundreds of pounds worth of Christmas presents have also been damaged beyond repair.
Kassandra said: “We’ve lost everything that was upstairs.”
The blaze is believed to have started in an upstairs bedroom due to an electrical fault.
The family have since been told the house is uninhabitable and have been taken in by relatives while they search for long-term accommodation.