A Kildare mum has issued a plea for help after a freak fire left the entire family homeless.
Inga Valatkiene and her husband and kids have been desperately looking for a place to live following the horror blaze at their home in Hazelhatch Park in Celbridge on Monday.
Inga's husband, Donatas, was at work when he received an urgent call from their neighbour saying she could hear an alarm going off in their home.
She told Dublin Live: "The neighbour said she could smell smoke upstairs in her house.
"We have an outdoor camera, and my husband straightaway tried to check it but it wasn’t working because the WiFi was down at that stage. So he thought something was wrong with the electricity."
On his way home, he got another call from their neighbour who said she was standing outside their home and could see something black through the kitchen window.
The family's dog, Bailey, was trapped inside the home but a brave neighbour rushed into the home and rescued the poor pooch who had been hiding in the attic.
Inga said: "The fire brigade said the fire started in a sensor in the house alarm and that it was an electric fire."
The family had moved into the home in 2008 - three years after the estate was built.
"The alarm had been there since the beginning. It was a small sensor above the living room door.
"It started from there but luckily for us we had closed most doors in the house because of Bailey and that stopped the fire from spreading everywhere."
She added: "But the damage is still bad. On the ground floor, everything including the walls has to be removed. Upstairs it’s not too bad because the room doors were closed so we just need to treat the walls.
"The attic conversion was bad because the smoke went up and everything has to be removed from there."
Bailey was rushed to the vet by the kind neighbour.
"She was all black and they said what we saw on the walls was in her lungs. She was a bit bad the first two days but she was given three injections and now she’s on medication.
"We had to go back to the vet because her eye was all infected and she couldn’t open it. That must have been probably because of the smoke."
Now Inga, Donatas, and their two sons, Rojus, 11, and Kajus, 7, are living with their neighbours until they can find temporary accommodation.
She fears they won't be able to move back into their home until after Christmas.
Inga said there are no AirBnBs available in the area and hotel rooms are too expensive.
She has also contacted estate agents but hasn't heard anything back.
If you think you can help Inga and her family please drop us a line at news@dublinlive.ie or aakanksha.surve@dublinlive.ie with the subject line "Celbridge house fire".
