A family with young children have lost most of their possessions after a fire ripped through their home in south Wales. Marilyn Hemmings and husband Mark have been left devastated after a fire started at their three-bed semi on Haydn Terrace, Merthyr Tydfil on Friday, October 21.
The couple were in the lounge at around 10.30pm while their two young children Malakai, nine and Cassius, six, both of whom are disabled, were upstairs when Cassius came running down the stairs to tell them there was a fire. They made a panicked exit and emergency services attended the blaze which has left the family's home destroyed.
Explaining how the fire unfolded, Marilyn's daughter Jo Stanley, 31, said: "My mum and stepdad were downstairs when the youngest came down to say there was a fire." She said her 17-year-old sister Olivia, who was also at home at the time, said the "whole of the upstairs was ablaze" before quickly grabbing six-year-old Cassius, who is autistic, and running outside.
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Jo, who is based in Hereford and was not in the house when the fire happened, said her family alerted a neighbour who helped Mark go upstairs, where the fire was burning strongly, to save nine-year-old Malakai, who has Down syndrome and relies heavily on a wheelchair.
"He was in my mum's bedroom where the fire is thought to have started," she said. "He walks but only small amounts, and he couldn't have run away himself. Mark and their neighbour ran through the fire to get him. He's quite heavy but they managed to carry him down the stairs and get out.
"My mum was obviously panicking and went to get a bucket of water but my sister told her that wasn't going to work. You can imagine the chaos."
Jo said emergency services eventually put out the fire but the house had been severely damaged. "We've only been allowed outside since it happened but upstairs is burnt out and they've told us that as well as smoke damage to the downstairs, the ceilings have collapsed internally."
She added that her mum, 50, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and needed to attend hospital after the fire but was unharmed. Her stepdad Mark suffered burns on his arm while running upstairs to save Malakai while their neighbour has been left with a broken arm. Jo said teenage sister Olivia's dad died when she was only two and that as well as losing clothes and household items, she and her mum had also lost precious memories of him from the house.
"They've lost pretty much everything. The fact it was in the bedroom, all their clothes and personal stuff are gone. My sister is in complete shock. Her personal belongings from her dad, she's lost all them. They were in her wardrobe. She was only two so she only had those belongings, she didn't have any memories of him.
"Mum has lost personal stuff from him too. I think that's the biggest thing. Everything else can be replaced but you can't get those things back. She is shocked and is having nightmares after it."
Jo has now helped to set up a GoFundMe to help Marilyn and the rest of the family, who have been staying in a hotel in Merthyr since the fire, to get back on their feet. "They'd been there four years and we're trying to get them settled into a property with enough space. We've managed to get them clothes and bare essentials - we'd like to thank the community who have helped out so far.
"My mum cried when she was given a bag of clothes - it's simple things like that mean a lot. People have gone out and got them underwear, toiletries etc. The support has been amazing. They are meeting the housing association tomorrow to get help with temporary accommodation, and we'd really like for them to be able to get into a home and get set up again, and start to rebuild."
A spokesperson for South Wales Police said: "Officers attended following a report of a house fire in Haydn Terrace, Merthyr, at approximately 10pm on Friday October 21. The fire is not being treated a suspicious and we can confirm that nobody was seriously hurt."
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service confirmed it attended the incident but was unable to confirm the suspected cause of the fire or any further details.
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