House Fire Renders Family Homeless

Hi, my name's Richard and this could happen to anyone. It sadly happened to my brother.

In the early hours of Friday 25th June, my brother and his family were awoken by their smoke alarms. After a quick investigation, seeing flames ripping through their utility room into the kitchen, my brother heroically ran upstairs and ensured that his wife and 3 of their children got clear of the house before the smoke completely ensnared them.

Having called 999 they were taken in by neighbours, before being checked by paramedics and then A&E. They are thankfully all safe and well.

Later that afternoon, having told the eldest daughter, who was luckily not there at the time, my brother and his wife returned to the scene that was once their beautiful family home.

It is no longer a comfortable 4 bedroom house, but somewhere that is dark, smelly and completely uninhabitable, and they don't know how many months it will be until they can call it home again.

Nearly everything they had has been ruined by fire, heat or smoke, upstairs too, including their clothes inside wardrobes etc.

Their weekend was spent trying to save anything worth salvaging, and family and neighbours helped, wash, pack and store the more fortunate items they were able to recover.

This fire was electrical, believed to be caused by a modern everyday, every home appliance, that is turned on at all times. This really is something that could happen to anyone.

Even though we never expect it to 'happen to me' we protect for such an event and so generally have insurance, as my brother does.

However, they are now learning that insurance will only stretch so far, and not cover everything.

This average and loved family have been flooded with kindness and donations of items and clothing that have been lost.

They have been overwhelmed with offers of help, and are having to start turning down people's generosity, due to storage, which is heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, at this time they do not have a permanent residence or even use of a kitchen and so don't have enough space to store much of anything.

We know there are people out there that really want to help. But at present what they need the most are gifts of money. This would help them afford to feed themselves while they have no permanent residence. Unfortunately, the insurance barely covers the cost of a healthy family meal, when you don't have use of a kitchen, let alone 3 meals a day for a family of 5.

They also need to start replacing more everyday essentials and furniture, and hope to eventually replace some of the children's prized possessions that have been melted and distorted.

Everyone - please check your smoke alarms and have more fitted if need be. Please, look into your insurance cover and please, if you can, help this family get back on their feet and, in time, rebuild their home.

Any donation will be put to good use, and greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Richard