A Balbriggan family have been left homeless after a devastating fire ripped through their house.
These images show the horrific damage caused by the inferno that engulfed the property leaving six members of the King family without a home. Mum-of-six Mary King said the blaze started in the early hours of June 3.
She told Dublin Live: "My son had just left for his summer job at 5.45am and I went upstairs to rest a little before my daughter was due to get up. I was in bed for about half an hour when I started getting warm.
Read more: Woman rushed to hospital after two car crash on M50
"I thought maybe the heating had come on but then I thought I was feverish or something because I was really hot. So I popped out of bed and I saw flames coming up through the floor around the walls.
"You could see straight lines of flames jumping in every direction. It was like when you see water fountains in shopping centres that shoot water up and it goes straight back down." Mary ran to get her sons and daughter out of the house.
When she opened the door to her daughter's room, she was horrified to see that the partition wall between her room and her daughter's had burnt down. She said: "My daughter pretty much jumped out of bed grabbed whatever she had in her hands and ran downstairs.
"My son was getting burnt going down the stairs. We got out and broke down our neighbour’s door who is an elderly man. We also broke down our other neighbour’s door."
Mary and her family rushed back to the driveway when they heard the fire alarms going off as an inferno raged inside their home. She added: "We didn’t have our fobs or keys to move our car which was parked close to the gas meter. We had to stand there and watch our house burn."
Mary said it took Dublin Fire Brigade three hours to extinguish the fire. Everything including their heating system, walls, ceilings, floor was destroyed. Mary's daughter Laura was rushed to hospital for smoke inhalation.
Mary added: "My daughter was doing her Leaving Cert. She’s still very ill. She did her best in a bad situation." But she said that she was grateful to the teachers of Educate Together Balbriggan who supported Laura during her exams.
The family is currently staying in temporary accommodation through Fingal County Council until the end of July. But Mary fears they may have nowhere to go after that.
She said: "We're not too sure what will happen going forward. After July, we won’t be in a position to pay both a mortgage and rent to a private landlord.
"What we’re trying to do is at least get a roof on this house so we can move back in. There’s six of us. It’s difficult to pay rent, mortgage, and the bills on two houses."
Mary also said that while the building is structurally safe, the roof has been destroyed. "We have a temporary cover on the roof but the way the water is coming through, we are very concerned about the neighbour. We are very concerned about his house and the water damage it could cause so it’s kind of an emergency situation."
A GoFundMe page has been launched to help raise enough funds for Mary and her family to rebuild their home. To help support them you can donate here.
Read next:
South Dublin pub attacked with petrol bomb while punters were inside
Fire fighters offered mental health support after two bikers died in M50 crash
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
