A FUNDRAISER has been launched to help a family left distraught after they “lost everything” when a fire tore through their home.
Kelly Bundred told the Echo how she rushed her three children out of her home in Paxfords, Laindon, after discovering fire and smoke coming from her wardrobe on Friday morning.
The fire, believed to have been sparked from an extension lead, quickly spread through the top floor with windows at both the back and the front burnt out.
Ms Bundred said her ceiling had been left “structurally unstable”, while the bottom floor had been left heavily water damaged.
The single mum, who lives in the home with three children, said within ten minutes of noticing the fire the whole property had been engulfed in flames.
She said: “My kids have lost everything. I have three children, they have literally lost it all.
“It started in my bedroom, I noticed flames in there with my clothes.
“I was going to get out, so I got the kids and got out. There were flames coming out of the windows.
“I am just glad it happened when everyone was awake. To be honest, I cannot even think straight at the moment.
“The whole house is gone. I decorated the house myself and it’s just all gone up in flames.”
The fire initially broke out at 6.30am on Friday.
Ms Bundred’s daughter Elise Smith, 24, added: “I was getting ready for work at half six and my mum rang and she was screaming ‘the house is gone you need to get over here’ and then she hung up and I called my sister and I rushed over there and the fire brigade were there, paramedics and police.
“Everyone was okay, my mum was getting up to get them to school, turned around and noticed smoke.
“It started in her wardrobe and they think there was an extension lead in the wardrobe.
“It got out of control and the whole wardrobe caught on fire and she screamed for the kids to get out of the house.”
A fundraiser set up on Friday morning to support the family has already raised more than £1,000.
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