Two parents said the "grief is still raw" 10 years after an arson attack ripped through a flat and claimed the lives of five family members.
Steve Allen and Jonty Lewis have wrestled with unimaginable grief about a fire that claimed the lives of five family members including their daughter Skye and son Bailey. Steve and Jonty's lives were ripped apart following the fire in 2012 and over the past 10 years the pair have tried to rebuild their lives for their five other children.
Skye and Bailey had been staying with their aunt Lee-Anna Shiers, her partner Liam Timbrell and their 15-month-old son Charlie, when neighbour Melanie Smith set a fire in the hallway of their flat in Prestatyn, Wales. In a drunken rampage, Smith set fire to a pram in the communal hallway following a row over where it should be kept.
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Flames tore through the flat where the three children and two adults were staying in a horrific crime which shook the community. Siblings Skye, two, and Bailey, four, died on the night of the fire with their aunt Lee-Anna. 15-month-old Charlie was resuscitated at the scene and fought for his life at Alder Hey Children's Hospital but died two days later.
Charlie's dad Liam died three weeks later, becoming the fifth person to lose their life as a result of the blaze. Smith was jailed for a minimum of 30 years in 2013 for five counts of murder.
Steve told North Wales Live : "When you lose a loved one, people tell you 'time is a great healer', but the truth is, that pain will never go away. People used to say that to us a lot, but time doesn't heal you, it just teaches you to deal with it better. There's little things we do that are silly, but that's how we cope.
"Everyone deals with things differently, but for us having pictures and reminders of those happy memories helps us cope. Even though it's been ten years, it doesn't feel like that, it feels like yesterday."
Jonty and Steve still live in the area - just a few minutes' drive from the flat. But despite the painful reminder the pair said they could never move away because of how many happy memories the town holds.
Jonty said the community rallied around them following the tragedy as "it touched a lot of people". She added: "I really want to thank people for their ongoing support, even after all this time it means a lot that people still remember and ask us how we're doing. People were amazing and we had a lot of support so I just want to thank all the people who have supported us."
The couple's eldest son Kai is now 16 with hopes of joining the army, while Hunter, who was a baby at the time, is now 10. Younger siblings Tristan Bailey, eight, Summer Skye, seven, and four-year-old Junior, were born after the tragedy and despite never having met their older siblings, they know about them from their mum and dad's stories and pictures.
Mum Jonty says she will always carry the pain of the loss with her, but wants others to know that things do get easier. She said: "When it first happened we didn't know how we would carry on, and if it wasn't for the kids I don't think we would have.
"It took us a long time to get over the guilt of laughing and feeling happy again, because it felt like people were judging us for not being miserable all the time but if we lived like that forever then we'd be robbing the kids of their future and that's not fair on them. I remember at the time thinking I would never be happy again but then it started to get a bit easier to cope with the day-to-day.
"It's still always with you and still feels so raw but it starts not being right there in front of your face all the time. I think anyone who has lost a loved one should know that there is light at the end of it, because I remember how much it helped me at the time."
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