Powys family flee their burning home
Monday 6th September 2010, 1:14PM BST.
A Powys mother and her four young children were forced to flee their burning home after a fire ripped through the property.
Effie Nicolaou and her family escaped from the house in Maesowen, Welshpool, unharmed and managed to raise the alarm.
It took fire crews just under an hour to bring the blaze under control after it started at about 11.15am on Saturday.
Miss Nicolaou said she and her children, Kaulla, 13, Maria, 12, Joanna, 10, and Christos, eight, were now living with her mum. The 42-year-old, who works as a carer in the town for Powys County Council, said she had just returned from a shift when the fire was sparked from a faulty fuse box in the hallway of her house.
She said: “At first I saw the smoke and I just shouted to everyone get out of the house. One of my children was in the shower, one was watching TV and the other two were in the kitchen.
Flames
“We rushed into one of my neighbour’s homes and she phoned the emergency services. I could see flames coming out of the windows and smoke pouring out of my girls’ room on the first floor.”
She has now urged residents across the region to make sure their fire alarms are in good working order
“There is a lot of damage and I haven’t even been upstairs. I’m just hoping I can claim everything back. I will have to move to my mother’s house for the time being,” Miss Nicolaou added.
A Mid and West Wales Fire Service spokesman said the fire was being treated as accidental.
Meanwhile, a 62-year-old man was today fighting for his life in hospital after being carried unconscious from a burning house in Shropshire.
Pub workers raised the alarm after seeing smoke billowing from the terraced property in Wrockwardine Wood, Telford, yesterday.
By Anwen Evans
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