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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Lee Grimsditch

Kids run home screaming 'nan's house is on fire'

A mum described the terrifying moment she was cooking tea and heard her children running home screaming "nan's house is on fire!"

Josephine Sullivan said her mum lost everything except the pyjamas she was wearing after a fire tore through her home on Tuesday, November 9.

The 35-year-old lives close to her mum, Linda Fowler, 65, in Kirkby where their homes are separated by a playing field.

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Josephine was cooking around 5pm when her children ran into the house to raise the alarm.

Josephine said: "I'd let my kids out to play. There's a field between my mum's house and my house where they play. One of my kids ran into my house screaming, 'my nan's house is on fire!'

"I had to say to their dad, come and look after the kids while I get round."

The flames and smoke her children had spotted coming from their nan's house had started accidentally in the front bedroom of her house.

Josephine said: "[My mum] sits in the kitchen on a sofa and sleeps there as she struggles to get up the stairs.

"She had the door closed over and she was dozing on the couch and she heard the cat screeching.

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"She went to the kitchen door and saw the cat with one of its kittens in its mouth. Then she saw all smoke.

"She struggled to get the rest of the kittens but said she couldn't leave them, they were only two weeks old."

After escaping the blazing home with the cat and kittens that had alerted her to the flames, Josephine's mum dialled 999.

Josephine said: "When I got round there were two fire engines there and my mum was outside dead upset.

"And then I started crying because I'd never seen my brother cry."

Josephine has set up a fundraising page to try and help her mum replace the items she lost in the blaze. If you would like to donate, click here.

She added: "The front bedroom is just a crisp but you can see from the rest of the pictures there's smoke damage everywhere.

The fire started in the front bedroom (Josephine Sullivan)

"The water was coming down and flooded the front room. The only thing she left the house with was her pyjamas which she had on her back.

"Apart from the washer and dryer everything is smoke damaged. The TV's melted on the wall. Everything really - clothes, beds.

Heat from the flames melted the TV on the wall (Josephine Sullivan)

"She had been buying Christmas presents as well, getting a bit each week. She's lost all that.

"They had to stay with my sister that night."

Josephine said her mum has been staying in a hotel, but doesn't know where she will live long term.

Linda Fowler and her son lost everything in the blaze (Josephine Sullivan)

A spokesperson for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said they were: "Called to Dalry Walk, Kirkby, on Tuesday 9th November.

"Crews were alerted at 5.11pm and on scene at 5.16pm. Two fire engines attended. On arrival crews found a fire in the bedroom of the property.

"Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the fire using a hose reel jet.

"Crews also checked neighbouring properties for fire spread. Firefighters left the scene at 7.13pm.

"It is believed the fire started accidentally."

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