Exclusive Report by Herald Photojournalist Mark Griffiths
Standing on the back garden of Damien and Hannah’s house is a stark reminder of what this family have had to endure when their beloved home was completely gutted by a furious accidental fire.
All of their personal possessions salvaged from the aftermath lay strewn on the back lawn each with varying degrees of fire damage.
Damien showed The Herald the remains of his personal computer and his IPhone.
“I had pictures and videos of my children on here since they were born, all of these fond memories captured have been completely destroyed and eradicated” said Damien in a crocked voice while trying his best to maintain composure.
They lead me through the house room by room and the internal damage is devastating, back soot has caked the walls and celling and the stench of smouldering materials is nauseating, Hannah said whilst comforting Damien:
“The house is completely unrecognisable to us now. It’s just so upsetting to see it like this”
Unfortunately for the couple, they didn’t take out house and contents insurance to cover their possessions in the event of this sort of incident:
“We never thought that something like this could happen to us. You see house fires on the news but we have always taken extra precautions to prevent something like this happening” said Damien who is still unsure how the fire started.
“One thing that we can all be grateful for is the fact that Hannah, the kids and I all escaped unhurt” he added.
What Damien and Hannah plan to do now is to slowly rebuild their home piece by piece with the help of donations.
“We can’t thank those that have helped us enough, It all goes a long way in the tedious process of restoring our beloved home to it’s former state” Damien told The Herald.
The couple stressed that this will not be possible without the continued help and support of further donations, this can only be achieved with the help of local businesses and the general public reaching deep into their pockets and giving whatever they can to this kind and caring family.
