A woman and two children aged seven and four died in a fire in the early hours of Boxing Day after their father, a serving police officer, desperately tried to save them.
The officer smashed his way out of the stone cottage in the Cotswolds and tried to break into his children’s bedroom from the outside to rescue them but was beaten back by the flames.
His wife’s body has been recovered and the body of one of the children was found in the mid-terrace cottage. Search and recovery experts are still looking for the body of the second child.
Gloucestershire police are not treating the fire as suspicious and say they believe it to have been a tragic accident. The family, who have not been named, are said to be popular and much loved in the Brimscombe Hill area of Stroud.
Speaking at the police headquarters in Gloucester, Det Supt Ian Fletcher said emergency services were called at 3am on Boxing Day to a “well-established” fire.
Fletcher said the mother and father had been woken in the early hours by the blaze. “They attempted to get to their children in the back bedroom. They’ve been unable to get to the back bedroom due to the ferocity and the heat of that fire.
“The father has smashed his way out of the house through a bathroom window in order to try to access the children’s bedroom via the outside. He’s been unable to enter via that bedroom window. He’s then tried to re-enter the property through the bathroom window, by which stage the fire has taken hold in the bathroom and he’s unable to get back into the upstairs.
“He’s subsequently gone downstairs and tried to force entry via the front and the back door but has been unable to get back inside into the property and it’s at this point our colleagues from emergency services, fire police et cetera have attended and have started managing the fire.”
The man was treated at hospital. Fletcher said it was believed the fire began on the ground floor and worked its way up. He said the roof had fallen in.
The body of an adult woman has been recovered, believed to be the mother, who was in her late 30s. A child’s body has also been found but is still in situ. The search for the body of the second child is ongoing. The girl was seven, the boy four. It is not yet known which one has been found.
Fletcher said: “The husband is a serving police officer with Gloucestershire constabulary. He’s working with us to try to understand what exactly has happened.
“We’ve had multiple witnesses describe the anguish that he was going through, his inability to get in and save his children and save his wife. He’s a well-liked officer in Gloucestershire constabulary. He’s worked for us for a number of years.”
Gloucestershire’s deputy chief fire officer, Nathaniel Hooton, said an urban search and rescue team from Avon fire and rescue service was helping the recovery effort. He said fire crews had “tried their hardest” to get into the house to rescue the family.
Chloe Turner, the leader of Stroud district council, said the community was reeling. “The family are known and loved locally,” she said.
The Gloucestershire temporary chief constable, Maggie Blyth, said: “This is an unimaginable tragedy and my thoughts are with our colleague, along with all of those involved and impacted by what has happened.
“At a time when we are all acutely aware of family and the joys that they can bring, my heart breaks at the indescribable pain that they must be experiencing.”
A cordon remains in place at the address and an emergency services presence is expected to continue for several days as the site is structurally unstable.
The British Red Cross has said support is available for anyone who needs it on 0808 196 3651. A local church is being opened to offer support for local people who have been affected.
