Lucky to be alive

Mar 20 2008 by Catherine Evans, Rhymney Valley Express

A MOTHER has spoken about her family’s terrifying ordeal when their house caught fire because of a smouldering cigarette.

Joanne Morris, of Glanddu Terrace, Tir-y-berth, had to rush her mother Alice Plummer and son Aaron, aged 10, out of their home at 3am on March 7 after Mrs Plummer fell asleep upstairs while smoking and her bedding caught fire.

The Express reported last week how 70-year-old Mrs Plummer, who has only just had a hip operation, and her family managed to escape from the smoke-filled bedrooms and raise the alarm.

Joanne, aged 30, a full-time carer to her mother, said: “My mother had just lit another cigarette upstairs when I went downstairs to check everything was locked up.

“We’d had a late night and we were tired. As I was going back upstairs I could hear my mother shouting - I thought she had fallen out of bed. I told her I was coming but then I could hear her and Aaron screaming.

“I could see the light from the fire and the smoke.

“I managed to get them downstairs, my mother into a wheelchair and then out of the house.

“My mother’s disabled and has only just had an operation so I think her will to live just took over and she got down the stairs.”

Firefighters from Cefn Fforest station were on the scene within minutes but the fire had already taken hold, destroying most of the family’s possessions.

They tragically also lost their Yorkshire terrier Max and Aaron’s pet gerbils.

“Some of the firemen came back to the house a few days ago and buried them at the bottom of the garden which was nice of them,” Joanne said.

Moments after getting into an ambulance Joanne herself collapsed and went into respiratory arrest. She woke up the next day in intensive care.

She said: “I had tubes everywhere. Doctors wanted to keep me in over the weekend but I was so upset about everything that I just wanted to get home to my family.

“We’ve lost everything - the pets, clothes, teddy bears I collected and all sorts of photographs and sentimental things my mother had kept from when my father was alive.

“That’s more upsetting than anything.”

Joanne, her mother and Aaron, a pupil at Tir-y-berth Primary School, have been staying with family in Cefn Hengoed since the fire and move into temporary accommodation next week.

It will take about three months for their house on Glanddu Terrace to be redecorated and safe for the family to move back in.

For now Joanne is just glad that everyone is safe and has offered a stark warning to smokers everywhere.

“I would tell anyone who smokes inside to be so careful and never light a cigarette if you’re tired,” Joanne said.

“I believe that smoke alarms are the most important thing you can have in the home and you should fit one in each room where there are electrical appliances or if you plan to smoke.

“My mother doesn’t smoke inside now so that’s a good thing.

“We were very lucky.”