Grantham family ‘very lucky’ to have escaped fire in front of home

A family is suffering with the long-term effects of a fire that crews said they were ‘very lucky’ to have escaped.

Samantha Scully was woken by banging on her bedroom door when Amelia, one of her seven-year-old twin daughters, told Samantha there was a fire outside their home in Belton Lane, Grantham.

“I heard my daughter shouting ‘Mummy, Mummy there is a fire’. We went flying down the stairs and could see an orange glow coming from outside,” said Samantha, who was in the house with her partner, twin daughters Amelia and Charlotte, 10-year-old son James and two dogs.

She added: “My daughter first woke up, opened her curtains and saw the front of our house was engulfed in flames.

“She woke up her twin sister and then came to us.”

Samantha then heard more banging from her front door, from a man who had apparently climbed over the flames to alert the family.

She added: “I need to find him to say thank you as he was a hero.”

A postal worker who was travelling to work called Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue firefighters, who said the family were “very lucky” to escape unharmed and that the fire didn’t spread any further.

The fire, which broke out at about 4am on August 27, resulted in damage to the hedgerow, which was completely engulfed, and also the top of the garage.

Samantha said: “The firefighters told us we were very lucky it didn’t spread. They arrived very quickly and are giving my little girl a bravery bear.

“We took a crate of beer to them to say thank you. They realised how upsetting it was for the children so they took them on the fire truck, let them use the fire hoses and gave my daughter a little bravery teddy for alerting us all to the fire.”

Samantha says her children are now suffering as a result of the fire.

She added: “It was absolutely terrifying and very frightening. We have all been traumatised by it and don’t feel safe.

“I had three young children in the house and it was very scary for them. They have told me they are having flashbacks about the fire now.

“My little girl says she can still hear the screaming and my little boy is completely neurotic about the fire alarms flashing in our house now.”

Lincolnshire Police officers said they will not be continuing with an investigation into the fire as they said “it is not a deliberate action”, while Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue said the cause of the fire was “carelessly discarded smoking materials”.

Samantha got in touch after reading the LincsOnline story last week where the Udom family was left “shaken” from a similar fire.

“It made me upset when I saw the other story about Mrs Udom and her fire,” she said.

“When I saw the story I thought it was our house! The fire was very similar to ours.

“It makes me really angry that something like this could happen when I had three young children in the house.

“No-one should have to go through something like this.”