Mother grateful for community help after house fire

A mother who rescued her three children from a fire which destroyed their home has said "thank you isn't enough" to the people who have donated to the family.

Hannah Foster, 36, grabbed her sleeping daughter and alerted her two sons and partner to leave their home in Allestree, Derby, when their faulty tumble dryer started the blaze.

She said her local community has raised more than £1,500 and has donated clothes and toys to the family.

"Everyone's been amazingly generous and I'm so thankful for it. That money's going to be incredibly useful and help us start our lives again," she said.

Foster rented the Riddings property in Allestree for 15 years, with her two youngest children having lived in the house their whole lives.

The special educational needs teaching assistant was drying clothes at about midnight on 26 March, preparing for a caravan holiday the following morning.

She said she smelt smoke before hearing glass smash and walked halfway down the stairs when the fire alarm went off.

"It sounded like fireworks going off," she said.

"I glanced into the kitchen and saw a wall of flame."

She woke her partner who was asleep on the sofa surrounded by smoke and instructed her two teenage sons to leave.

"I then grabbed my daughter out of the bed and we just ran outside," she said.

"As I turned to look over my shoulder, you could just see the flames licking right up the side of the house and the whole conservatory was completely ablaze."

Foster said, as a single mother, contents insurance was "the last thing she could afford spending money on" and so was grateful to the strangers who have helped.

"It restores your faith in humanity. Everyone's been absolutely wonderful," she said.

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue confirmed the tumble dryer was the most likely cause of the fire, adding that something could have dropped down the back which contributed to it overheating.

Foster also learned that her brand of tumble dryer has been recalled because lint collects inside the drum, which can be hazardous.

She has also wondered if having more than one smoke alarm in the house would have helped them escape more quickly and encouraged people to install more in their own homes.

The family are now staying at Foster's parents, where her two-year-old daughter is enjoying "big play day, every day."

"My 12-year-old son is on the spectrum, so he's got a lot of anxious thoughts.

"He's lost a lot of things that made his environment safe for him, so he's going through a lot," said Foster.

The family are now looking for a new home because it would be "too traumatic to put the children back in there."

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