A young family has lost everything after their home burned down due to a fire caused by a tumble dryer. Iain Clark, 33, and his wife Emma, 32, quickly picked u their young children and ran for their lives at around 7.45pm on Tuesday, January 24 when the incident happened.
Dad Iain could smell burning coming from the tumble dryer and turned it off from the switch in the hopes that the issue would be resolved. But just minutes later smoke began pummelling into the living room, and within five minutes the entire kitchen was on fire.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Iain said: "We are still in shock. We just feel numb and can't believe this has happened. It's the most scariest thing that has ever happened to us. The most important this is we are okay but we've lost everything. All our appliances, our Sky Glass TV, our Nintendo Switch, most of our clothes - they're all gone.
"The kitchen is absolutely ruined and the living room is badly damaged. My baby's buggy is literally melted to the kitchen floor. We've also lost sentimental items like my wife's wedding dress. Most of these things can be replaced, but the biggest loss was our cat Oliver."
"We only had him for a year but he was in the family for years and he quickly became a member of the family. He was a big softy and he was so good with the kids. We are going to miss him more than anything else."
When the fire broke out, Iain shouted to his wife to quickly get the kids, and he managed to grab their dog who was in the kitchen, but Oscar the cat was asleep upstairs and died of smoke inhalation. The family escaped with the blaze with just the clothes on their back.
Iain said: "The scariest thing was how quickly the fire took hold. I smelt the burning coming from the tumble dryer but it wasn't that bad so I thought it was sorted once I'd turned it off.
"Then within minutes the smoke alarm started going off and black smoke was coming from the kitchen into the living room. I went into the kitchen and saw huge flames coming from behind the tumble dryer and that's when I went into panic mode and shouted at my wife to get the kids out."
Iain says while fire crews battled the blaze their whole street rallied together and gave the family jumpers and shoes. Little Daniel was just in a nappy, so a neighbour brought out a blanket to wrap around the tot. Thankfully the family have house insurance, but they are staying at Iain's dad's while the damage is assessed.
A fundraiser page was quickly launched to help support them - and already reached its £1,000 target by Wednesday lunchtime. To donate to the fundraiser to help support Iain and his family, click here.
Iain teared up as he added: "We have been totally overwhelmed by everyones kindness. We didn't know about the GoFundMe page until 2am. It was a massive shock that people were donating money, especially at this time of year with what everyone is going through."
A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: "We were alerted at 8.30pm on Tuesday January 24 to reports of a dwelling fire at Willowbank Brae, Dunfermline. Operations Control mobilised two appliances to the scene and firefighters worked to extinguish a fire in the ground floor kitchen. Four casualties were passed into the care of the Scottish Ambulance Service and crews left the scene after making the area safe”.
