More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A widowed grandmother was left with only the clothes she was wearing and her late husband’s ashes after her home went up in flames.
Doris Short was sitting in her 26ft caravan parked in Hill Rise, Darenth , when it caught alight shortly before 7pm last Friday.
The 91-year-old widow pitched up in the back garden of her son Jason Short’s two-bed property eight years ago so she could live close to him and wife Kim.
Not long after the couple had locked the front door to set off on a camping trip in Wateringbury for the weekend, they were alerted to the flames engulfing fence panels of their property.
“We were getting set up to go away. Doris was in the caravan,” said daughter-in-law Kim Short. “Then a neighbour was chatting with us, that kept us longer than we should have been and within five minutes they came running across screaming.”
Meanwhile, Doris began to notice the flames growing besides the mobile home.
Holding her grandson’s hand while speaking from the family home, Doris said: “It was really terrifying. I looked out the window and saw a lot of flames at the back by the fence. I came running out screaming ‘someone help me’.”
In a panic, the pensioner went back into the caravan to retrieve her phone to call her son for help. Not long after, Kim ran in to retrieve her elderly mother-in-law, screaming “get out, get out”, aware there were flammable gas cannisters that could go up any minute.
But they managed to recover Doris’s husband’s ashes from the burning caravan.
Kim, 44, described the intense heat she said had become unbearable and was spreading “like those bush fires” in Australia.
Even the fire extinguisher was not able to withstand the pressure of the flames and “went off like a rocket,” she added.
Neighbours looked on in horror as they witnessed the fire tear through the caravan.
“My children saw the smoke, and the people in the house next to them saw the smoke,” one neighbour said.
“It didn’t take long for the caravan to go up. There was a gas cylinder connected which blew up – we heard it go bang.”
One of the couple’s two sons, Luke, ran next door to notify their neighbour, who is also in their nineties.
Fire crews were summoned to the blaze but access was impeded initially by a food delivery van parked outside, Kim said. After some noisy encouragement from neighbours, two fire engines were able to gain access to the property.
Crews wore breathing apparatus and used hose reels to extinguish the flames, which had spread to two sheds and completely destroyed a summer house. The family are not sure of the cause of the fire but ruled out any electrical cause. “We can only surmise,” said Kim, who added there had been people using the access point round the side of their house in the last few days but had not noticed anything untoward.
The fire service determined the fire started accidentally due to cooking oil overheating. No casualties were reported.
A huge clean up operation is now under way and the family has been receiving lots of help to remove the debris and clear the area flattened by the blaze.
“Everyone from the village was up here and were so supportive,” she said. “People just help out when they can.”
But the fire has come as a devastating blow to Doris who said she had “lost everything” as her home burnt to the ground including priceless family photos and memories.
Doris moved in with her late husband, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, so they could be close to their family and obtained planning permission for the caravan.
Jason has launched a fundraiser to help his mother, who is currently sleeping on the sofa, to replace belongings. It has raised more than £800.
To donate to the fundraiser click here .
