08 January 2024 , 23:33
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A mum was heard screaming for help after she jumped from a first-floor window while her two young kids were still trapped inside their blazing home.
As the fire took hold, Lorena Ferara whisked away her two kids, Louis, aged five, and his two-year-old sister Desire, to the upstairs bedroom of their property in Preston. Just hours earlier, her husband Lucian had left the house to go to work. As he left, Lorena locked the bedroom door with a chain lock, leaving Louis to play on her phone while she fell asleep with little Desire.
A little over an hour later, Lorena was woken up by the smoke alarm before discovering a fire burning ferociously downstairs. Returning to the bedroom, she tried to lift the kids up to the small window, but the kids wouldn't climb out.
Neighbour Sarah Williams, who was the first to dial 999 at around 7.52pm, was babysitting for her granddaughter at a house nearby when she heard Lorena's harrowing cry: "Save my children!"
In a statement to police, Sarah said: "I saw smoke billowing from the upstairs window and flames coming from the downstairs window. I saw two children banging on the upstairs window and a female screaming for help. I then saw the female on the floor [outside] and assumed she had jumped."
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Gordon Simpson, who was in a nearby convenience store at the time, raced to the house and tried to get inside but was forced back by the "inferno" and thick black smoke. Another eyewitness said they could "see children on the other side of the window, crying and banging, they could at first see their faces but then the smoke became too thick and they could no longer see them".
Little Louis and Desire were rushed to hospital, but despite the best efforts of medics, they never regained consciousness and were pronounced dead three days later (Lanslive)Firefighters arrived at the scene and were inside by 8pm. Louis and Desire were carried out by firefighters seven minutes later, but despite the best efforts of medics they never regained consciousness and died three days later, reports Lancs Live.
An inquest at County Hall in Preston heard extracts of a statement Lorena gave to police. She described desperately trying to save her children on Friday April 8, 2022.
"I took the children and raised them on the windowsill to be able to breathe," Lorena said. "In a few seconds, the room was full of smoke. I was struggling to raise them to get some air; the children were coughing very loud.
"I put my hand out of the window and shouted for help. I raised them to the window. I was shouting to people below 'should I throw the children?'.
"I took Desire and tried to take her out of the window but she resisted out of fear. I couldn't do it anymore but the people were shouting to take the children out of the window.
"I went out of the window hoping that someone would climb up to help us. The people were shouting to me to jump. They put a wooden board on the trash cans and I jumped."
The inquest heard that the family couldn't escape through the larger window as the handle had been removed after the children had started to climb onto the furniture, and their parents feared they would fall out of the window. An investigation concluded that Louis had managed to get out of the bedroom while his mum was asleep, by using a coat hanger to unlock the door, and then started the fire by holding a lighter against the settee downstairs.
The children's parents have previously voiced concerns about the speed of the emergency service response. However, the inquest heard that, around seven minutes after the first 999 call firefighters were entering the house and, just short of eight minutes after that, had brought both children out.