‘Santa will deliver all your presents to heaven for you’
Deeply moving tributes to four brothers killed in house inferno while home alone
THE heartbroken family of four brothers who died in a house fire after being left home alone yesterday visited the scene to pay an emotional tribute.
A makeshift shrine of flowers, balloons, toys and football scarves was piled up outside the burnt-out terrace house where the two sets of twins died.
Brothers Kyson and Bryson, four, and Leyton and Logan, three, perished after a blaze ripped through their home in Sutton, South London, on Thursday.
The boys’ mother, Deveca Rose, had reportedly returned from a trip to the shops just a five-minute walk away to find the house ablaze shortly before 7pm.
Police said they had arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of child neglect but she had been bailed until mid-January.
Family members and grieving locals left handwritten tributes to the four children, who were often pictured holding hands together.
One note read: ‘Santa will deliver your presents to heaven for you. Stay holding hands forever.’
‘The boys were laid out in a row on the pavement’
Another said: ‘We are sad to hear that you are gone but you remain in our hearts. Rest easy.’
The inferno tore through the ground floor of the house, overwhelming the four boys with dense smoke. The children were pulled from the blaze by firefighters but tragically could not be saved.
More than 60 firefighters in eight engines raced to the ‘intense’ blaze and took 90 minutes to bring it under control.
The crews have been offered counselling after reporting they were ‘numb with profound sadness’ over the deaths.
The scarves of supporters from local football club Sutton United were piled up in honour of the football-mad youngsters.
The League Two side also held a minute’s silence before their match against Harrogate Town yesterday. Manager Matt Gray also left scarves at the scene to pay their respects to the youngsters.
Investigators are examining the property to discover the cause of the blaze amid reports that it may have started when faulty fairy lights set alight the PVC front door. This had not been confirmed last night.
A neighbour in her 40s, who did not want to be named, told The Sun: ‘The boys were laid out in a row on the pavement and the firemen were trying to resuscitate them.
‘They said one of them was still moving. There was an angry reaction from the crowd when the
mother arrived home.’ The boys’ father Dalton Hoath, 28, who is separated from their mother, issued a statement on Friday in tribute to his sons.
‘They were bright, caring, loveable boys, but most of all sons, brothers, grandsons, great grandsons, nephews and cousins’, he said.
The boys’ grandfather Jason Hoath, deputy safety officer at AFC Wimbledon Football Club, said: ‘Everyone was looking forward to Christmas and after the holidays in the New Year the boys were going to their first game.
They loved playing football. We are all big Wimbledon fans and were going to take them there.
‘I have some wonderful memories of us playing football in the summer with the boys in their England shirts as we watched the Euros. We had some lovely parties together.’
The police investigation is ongoing. Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer said: ‘The thoughts of everyone at the Metropolitan Police are with the family and friends of the four young boys who lost their lives in this tragic incident.
‘Local detectives continue to investigate and will be working with colleagues from the London Fire Brigade to determine what caused the fire and to investigate any other relevant matters.’