‘Our house blew up’
A COUPLE who had a miraculous escape after their house blew up say they’ll never set foot in it again.
Jessie Dryburgh and Brian Fraser say the ongoing horror of their near- death experience means they don’t want it repaired.
A SCOTS couple who miraculously escaped being burned alive after their home exploded and the roof caved- in have revealed they will never set foot in the building again.
Jessie Dryburgh, 67, and her fiancé Brian Fraser, 69, spoke exclusively to the Sunday Post as they took stock of their lives after the inferno that destroyed their Highland council house earlier this month.
And they said h a r r owi n g flashbacks have prevented them from accepting a local authority offer to move back into the Inverness dwelling once it has been reconstructed and refurbished.
The uninsured couple also revealed plans for their wedding a re on hold after Je s s i e’s engagement ring and all their personal documents and savings were lost in the flames.
Their fire alarm failed to go off and they believe the battery may have run out.
Retired home help Jessie, who was carried unconscious from the burning building by firefighters, said: “We know now how a life can be snatched away in seconds.
“We had been engaged for four years but, as soon as we are able, we will marry.
“We are living for the moment now. The council have said we can move back in in six to eight months when the house is repaired but I can’t bear to go in there.”
And reliving the night when they came within minutes of death, Brian added: “If I hadn’t stayed up that night to watch a film we wouldn’t be talking about this now.”
Jessie had gone to bed at the house in Benula Road and Brian – who has h i s own place in Drumnadrochit – was watching TV at 10.40pm when he heard a loud bang.
He went into the hall to check the noise and saw flames ripping through the kitchen.
He said: “The front door was locked and I ran through the flames to get out of the back door. The heat was fierce.
“The minute I was out, the whole thing exploded. A second earlier, and I would have been in there and blown up too.”
Meanwhile Jessie, who was still in the bedroom, was overcome by acrid black smoke.
She said: “I was trying to scream for Brian but I was choking on the smoke. My insides were just burning up. I thought that I was going to die.
“I remember thinking that it would be a relief to die, that it would stop the pain of trying to breathe. There was black smoke everywhere but I could hear a voice screaming my name.”
That voice was Brian’s. He had raced to the front of the house where he frantically smashed the double glazed bedroom window with a heavy garden ornament but was beaten back by flames.
Brian said: “I was shouting ‘Jessie, Jessie, Jessie’ – but she never spoke, she was unconscious.”
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were on the scene in minutes and carried Jessie out of the house before attempting to resuscitate her.
His voice raw with emotion, Brian said: “I thought I had lost her. A policewoman took me away and said, ‘ You don’t want to see this’.”
Jessie, who has a grown- up son and three- year- old grandson in London, was taken to the city’s Raigmore hospital and treated for smoke inhalation before later being released the next day.
Jessie said: “I wake up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. Brian has flashbacks too and is on sleeping tablets. I will never set foot in that house again. The memories are too terrifying.” CUSTOMERS face huge differences in the quality and cost of laptop repairs, an investigation has revealed.
High street and independent repair shops have failed to fix broken laptops or fitted unnecessary parts, investigators found.
Some have also charged £170 more than their competitors for fixing the same problem, according to the results of a probe by consumer champion Which?
Undercover investigators took 24 deliberately broken laptops to six outlets.
They were Carphone Warehouse, Currys and PC World and independent shops.
The Carphone Warehouse and Apple Stores successfully fixed most of the broken laptops, while Which? found the independents targeted in the survey provided a “disappointing” service.