Mother and 2 children die in caravan blaze horror

TWO young children and their mother died yesterday when a fire tore through a caravan they had been sleeping in.

Screams were heard as flames engulfed the 36-year-old and her children, aged one and six, in the early hours at a mobile home park used as a winter home for travelling fairground workers.

The woman’s husband and eldest son, ten, who were also inside were treated for burns after they battled to save their loved ones.

By the time firemen managed to get into the home they found the three bodies burned beyond recognition.

Police and fire investigators examined the cause of the blaze yesterday at the Plantation site in Newchapel, near Lingfield, Surrey, but it was not initially believed to have been suspicious. One woman, who has lived on the site for 20 years, said: ‘I was woken at around 1.30am, I heard the fire engines outside.

‘My husband ran down to help and said the scene was devastating, there was screaming and crying, it must have been horrible. Everyone is just trying to come to terms with what happened.’ The privately-owned site is used by members of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain. Its president David Wallis said the couple had been married for ‘quite some time’.

A council report in December last year said there were 72 families living on 38 plots on the site, some of whom were ‘doubled up’ at a rate of two or three to a plot. The report added: ‘Overcrowding is a significant issue.’