School garden in memory of fire victims planned

MONTGOMERY Primary School in Exeter has made plans to create a garden in memory of pupils Iviee and Lillie, who lost their lives in a devastating fire.

On Sunday, February 21, Daniel, 29, and Kaylie Rudge, 28, along with four-year-old daughter Lillie, passed away after a blaze broke out at their home in Clayton Road, St David’s, just after 5.30am.

Three other children – two boys aged four and nine, and a sevenyear-old girl – who were also in the house at the time of the fire, were admitted to Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Despite the best efforts of medical staff, Iviee-May, 7, sadly passed away.

Iviee-May and Lillie-Rose were pupils at Montgomery School in Exeter, where the loss seriously impacted both staff and fellow students.

Jason Edge, headteacher said: “We are creating a memorial garden to remember Lillie-Rose and Iviee-May, we wanted to do something so there is a lasting memory of them.

“We want it to be something that is a living breathing part of the school rather just a monument or an object.

“We felt that having a place where students can go and laugh and have a chat would be an appropriate memorial for the girls as that is what we associate with them, a lot of laughter, a lot of chat and a lot of life.

“We wanted to dedicate a part of the school so other pupils can go and remember the girls themselves.

“We have a garden at the moment which is overgrown and we want to transform that into the memorial garden.

“We will cut that back, landscape it and grow some nice plants. It will be used everyday.’’

Mr Edge said that a fundraising page has been set up in order to raise the money needed to be able to transform the garden.

He said: “Next week we will be speaking to the children at the school – particularly the classes that have been affected – about what they would like to see in the garden, so there will be input from them.

“We associate laughter and happiness with the girls and we want the garden to reflect that. We are yet to name the garden, we want it to have a positive name so we will be speaking to pupils.’’

■ For more information, or to make a donation go online to gofundme and search for Montgomery School.

> Daniel and Kaylie Rudge were killed in a house fire which claimed the lives of two children