A young family is trying to piece their lives back together after a fire gutted their home and destroyed all their possessions. The blaze at the Cheetham Hill home in Manchester broke out in a bedroom.
As reported by the Manchester Evening News, it wrecked everything the family owned. Mum Stacey Doocey had lived at her home for 12 years and said her children had been left traumatised.
"We've lost everything," she said. "We just literally left the house with the clothes on our back.
"Everything is absolutely destroyed. We're starting everything from scratch - we've got one buggy from the house and that's it."
The cause of the fire last Thursday is still unknown. The family were downstairs when the smoke alarm alerted them to the fire in 13-year-old Emaleah's room.
"It just started in my daughter's bedroom and spread everywhere," said Stacey, 32. "We went upstairs and the room was glowing orange."
Emaleah was thankfully out at the time of the blaze. But the flames soon spread to other rooms at the home which Stacey also shared with partner Jayce Hogan, 26, his seven-year-old son Kodie, and the couple's two young children - one-year-old Jayce and seven-month-old Alyssa.
The fire has had a huge impact on the children, said Stacey. "They've lost everything, they are traumatised," she said.
"It was Kodie's birthday the other week and he's lost all his presents. They lost their school clothes, the lot. But I'm just glad everybody is safe."
The family are now staying in a hotel until they can find somewhere to live. Friends have set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help them rebuild their lives.
A Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “At 7pm on Thursday, October 6, firefighters were called out to a house fire on Corbridge Walk, Manchester. Three fire engines from Philips Park, Blackley and Broughton – as well as a turntable ladder from Manchester Central - attended the scene where a fire in a bedroom in an end terraced property had broken out.
"Firefighters used three hose reels, six breathing apparatus, a positive pressure ventilation fan and four gas monitors to tackle the fire and were detained for approximately three hours. Five people had self-rescued prior to arrival of fire crews and were assessed at the scene.”
