Mother and two children killed in Boxing Day fire
A mother and her two children were killed when a fire destroyed the family home in the early hours of Boxing Day.
Police were called to reports of a fire at a property on Brimscombe Hill, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, at around 3am on December 26, and officers attended the scene along with crews from Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service and the ambulance service.
Gloucestershire Police said the father, who survived the fire, was a serving officer. He tried to save his wife and two children, a seven-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy, but was driven back by the intensity of the fire.
Detective Superintendent Ian Fletcher told reporters outside Gloucestershire Police Headquarters that the unnamed parents woke up from the fire and tried to reach their child in the back bedroom.
“They could not reach the back bedroom due to the intensity of the fire.
“The father left the house by breaking the bathroom window to reach the child’s bedroom from the outside.
“He was unable to enter the property through his bedroom window.
“He then attempted to re-enter the property through the bathroom window, by which stage the fire had also engulfed the bathroom and he was unable to return to the upstairs bedrooms.
“He then went downstairs and attempted to force entry through the front and back doors but was unable to gain entry back into the property.
“It was at this point that our colleagues in emergency services joined the incident and began to manage and respond to the fire.”
Mr Fletcher said the fire was believed to have started on the ground floor and investigations were ongoing to establish the cause, but the fire was not treated as suspicious.
The magnitude of the fire caused the roof of Cotswold’s mid-terrace stone cottage to collapse, causing the ceiling and stairs to collapse.
While the body of a woman in her 40s was removed from the house, the body of a child was found at the scene.
“We are not treating this as a suspicious incident at this time,” Mr Fletcher said.
“This appears to have been a tragic accident that occurred in the early hours of Boxing Day.
“The surviving member of this family is a serving police officer with Gloucestershire Constabulary and once again our hearts and prayers go out to him and all his colleagues who knew him so well.
“He is working with us to try to understand exactly what happened on this property.”
Mr Fletcher added: “We have a number of witnesses who describe his anguish and his inability to go in and save his children and his wife.
“As you can imagine, he is very miserable.
“Sadly, he lost his family during what was supposed to be a happy festive season.”
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