Devastation as mum and two children 'lose everything' in house fire

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The sister of a mum and two children who 'lost everything' after a blaze ripped through their home in south Manchester has told of their devastation.

The fire broke out in bedroom inside the terraced property on Heald Avenue in Rusholme on Wednesday afternoon (August 24). The family who lived there - a 26-year-old mum and her two boys, aged six and eight - managed to escape unhurt.

The two children were sat on the front doorstep eating ice cream at the time the blaze broke out, and their mum ran out of the house as soon as she saw her bedroom 'covered in smoke'. The sister of the mum - who said the family does not wish to be named - said they will now have to 'start right from the beginning' after losing most of their belongings including clothes, the children's toys and furniture.

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Speaking the Manchester Evening News about the blaze, she said: "My sister was downstairs, the two little boys were sat on the doorstep eating their ice creams they had just got. She heard the smoke alarm going off downstairs but sometimes it goes off and she just has to bang it with a mop.

"She went up the stairs and noticed a bit of smoke but her bedroom door was closed. She opened it and the bedroom was covered in smoke.

"She went straight outside with the boys then within a couple of minutes the smoke blew up in flames, the window of the bedroom burst out. The smoke and fire travelled into the back room and ruined all the boy's stuff, they've literally got nothing left."

She said that the family believed the fire was down to an electrical fault. An investigation by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service is ongoing.

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