A FAMILY of four with twins on the way have “lost everything” in a devastating house fire.
Niamh Wythe, 33, was at work when she received a worried call from a neighbour to say they could hear an alarm going off and the dog barking at their home in Fleet, Hampshire.
In a panic Niamh, who was six months pregnant at the time, called her husband Aaron, 35, who was out running, unaware of the fire burning down their home.
The mum-of-two revealed how she saw plumes of smoke were rushing out the windows when she returned home to the fire.
She told The Sun: “By the time I got there I could see smoke coming out the windows and everything else.
“I kind of went into panic mode because I knew that our dog and cat were still in there.
“I got up the stairs as quickly as I could six months pregnant with twins – but when I got up and opened the door I kind of expected the dog to run out.
“I don’t know what I was thinking. I opened the door and it was just this wall of black smoke.
“It was really really thick and really heavy, you just couldn’t see anything. Obviously I didn’t go any further.”
Thankfully, Elizabeth, 6, and Vincent, 4, were at school but the families two cats and dog, Major, were still trapped.
Aaron rushed in to save the pets but “you just couldn’t see anything”, Niamh relayed.
She continued: “You kind of just have to stand and watch it. I don’t know what else you’re meant to do.
“So you’re literally just watching it happen.”
Niamh recalled the moment the fireman came out from searching the house: “When the fireman carried him out I’ve never been so happy to see his silly little face – I was like ‘you’ve just frightened the life out of me’.
“They found all the animals in the master bedroom, the furthest point from the fire, and Major seemed to have laid on my daughter’s blanket – so he must’ve found that blanket and just stayed there and just waited”.
The family have been unable to return to the house due to the scale of the damage.
Niamh explained: “Although I knew there would be extensive damage, I wasn’t expecting not to be able to go back so it was a bit of a blow.
“We lost everything.”
Their clothes, the kids toys, birth certificates, the couple’s marriage certificate, and Aaron’s passport, were all gone.
Niamh continued: “You keep all your important documents in one place and that happened to be where ours were so we’re having to make a list to replace all of that.
“Because we don’t have a permanent address yet it’s quite hard to replace all the stuff.”
After the fire, the family were immediately moved into a hotel, followed by temporary accommodation which they are currently in.
They will never be able to return to their home again.
Niamh explained how the kids have dealt with the situation.
She explained: “She [Elizabeth] has the odd time she’ll get quite upset about some of the stuff that was left there – not even toys wise, just stuff and the fact that we can’t go back.
“Because they were at school it almost feels quite unfinished for them – they literally went to school and then all of a sudden they can’t go home.”
“They do still have their moments when they say ‘oh we can’t ever go back?’ and I’m like no sorry. It hits them at different times.”
For Vincent, the flat is all he’s ever known.
Due to living in temporary accommodation, they can’t have their pets stay with them, which the kids are finding difficult.
Niamh explained: “Some days you sit there and think god I just want to go home and it’s so hard to not have somewhere that we can call home – I think mentally that’s quite difficult.”
However, the family have felt overwhelmed by the support they have received from the local community in Fleet.
She said: “It’s so easy to see the negative in everyone all the time and the negative in this world but actually when something as devastating and life-changing as this happens people have completely rallied around us and it’s just been amazing.
“It’s really helped us to cope with it better because we haven’t felt completely abandoned or isolated or helpless because everyone’s just been there from the get go.”
The couple are determined to “make things as stable and normal for the kids”, however, it feels like “there aren’t enough hours in the day for everything we need to figure out”.
Especially as they are expecting the twins to arrive in a matter of weeks and they’re currently on a month by month basis in temporary accommodation.
Niamh said: “It’s better than week by week! Ideally we’d like to be somewhere permanent before the twins arrive because they are due at the end of November.
“But, we have somewhere that’s warm and safe at the moment so if we have to have the twins while we’re here we’ll do that and make it work – we’ll figure it out along the way.”
Since speaking with The Sun in October, Niamh has given birth to her twins.
They are still in rented accommodation.
