Posted online: Jul 19th, 2010

A family from Drumsurn have spoken of their devastation after their house was badly damaged in a fire which started on their neighbour’s property.
Trevor and Linda Irwin’s Temain Road home went up in flames on July 2 after a fire started in a shed in their neighbour’s yard.
The couple, who have a daughter, Caitlin, were not at home when the blaze started at around 3.30pm.
Despite battling the fire for hours, fire fighters were unable to control the rapidly spreading fire which destroyed their neighbour’s home.
Now the Irwins say the damage to their home will set the back around £80,000.
“We are just gutted,” said Linda. “We had just done up the wean’s room recently and she cried her heart out when she saw it, it’s just wrecked.”
The Irwins, who have been forced to stay with family, said the fire was a frightening experience for them.
“I was at my mother’s house when the fire started and Trevor was working so we didn’t know anything about the fire until eight o’clock that night,” explained Linda.
“We were coming up the Terrydoo Road and the police had the road closed off. They told us there was a fire at a house on Temain Road and when we said we lived up there they said they thought our house might have caught fire also. It was very scary for us.
“Half of the roof is gone, the rooms upstairs are wrecked and the house is smoke damaged. Trevor lost all his tools and a tractor and trailer that was in the shed. I also had a tumble dryer in the shed that was just two months old.”
The Irwin family’s pet dog was also injured in the fire, however Trevor says he is thankful no-one was killed.
“I suppose the only good thing is that no-one was hurt or killed,” said Trevor.
“We’ve lived here nine years and only renovated the house three years ago. We had done a lot of work to get the house to this stage so we just devastated.”