Kelly had quickly popped to the shop — how could she come back to this?
With three pairs of eyes staring back at me, I went through the procedure that I’d been teaching my kids for years.
‘What do we do if there’s a fire?’ I asked them.
‘Call 999,’ my son Briar, 13, said.
‘And get out of the house,’ added my daughter Paten, 12.
‘Well done,’ I replied proudly.
As soon as my kids were old enough to understand, I’d taught them what to do in the event of a fire.
‘What if it’s just a small oven fire?’ I asked them.
‘Use the fire extinguisher,’ Briar replied.
‘That’s right!’ I exclaimed.
The eldest two already knew how to use one and we kept two in the house.
Briar was the most clued-up, but even my three-year-old daughter Jocelyn was starting to get the hang of it.
My hubby Jay and I had five children altogether.
As well as Briar, Paten and Jocelyn, we had Willow, one, and our six-month-old baby Sawyer.
Since she was born she’d suffered with seizures, so I’d made sure Briar and Paten knew how to do CPR too.
I hoped they’d never need to do it, but it was just in case.
Jay was a stay-at-home dad while I went to work as a recovery specialist.
One day, I got home from work and Jay had a plan.
‘Why don’t we do a buffet for the kids’ tea?’ he asked.
‘That’s a great idea, babe,’ I replied. ‘We could get some burgers and snacky bits like crisps and fruit.’
Our nearest supermarket was only a few minutes away by car.
‘Briar can you watch your sisters for 10 minutes please,’ I called as Jay and I grabbed our coats.
‘OK, Mum,’ he replied.
I’d left him in charge of the younger ones before, if I was only popping down the road, so I didn’t think anything of it.
Jay and I soon pulled up to the shop and began to wander the aisles.
‘We should get these,’ I said as I put a tin of beans in the basket.
Then, suddenly, my phone rang.
It was Briar.
‘I bet he wants us to get his favourite snack,’ I chuckled, before answering.
‘Mum you need to call 999, the house is on fire!’ he shrieked.
It felt like my heart had stopped for a split second.
‘We’re coming now,’ I told him before hanging up.
'The house is on fire, we have to go!'
‘What is it?’ Jay said, looking concerned.
‘The house is on fire, we have to go!’ I replied.
We dropped our basket and ran out the door.
Back in the car, we drove as fast as we could back home.
While Jay was driving, I dialled 999 and told them what was happening.
Four minutes later, we pulled up outside our house.
The sight we were greeted with was the stuff of nightmares.
The entire house was engulfed in flames.
‘Where are the kids?’ I screamed as I ran towards the crowd that had formed.
‘They’re in the pub across the road,’ someone called back.
I ran over, but inside I could only spot Briar.
‘Where are the girls? Where’s my baby?’ I screamed to anyone who’d listen.
‘The baby’s still inside,’ said a woman.
‘Oh my God, no,’ I shrieked.
I ran back towards our house.
By now, the fire brigade had showed up and had started to hose down the flames as much as they could.
The crackling sounds of the fire as it ate away all our possessions was haunting.
‘My baby’s still in there!’ I shouted.
‘No, she’s in the pub,’ someone replied.
Confused, I ran back to the pub and there I finally found the rest of the kids.
A kind stranger was cradling Sawyer and I slowly took her out of her arms.
‘Oh, my baby!’ I cried.
‘I’m sorry, Mum, I couldn’t save the house,’ Briar said as he approached me in tears.
‘I don’t care, I’m just glad that you’re all safe,’ I replied.
I looked around and spotted the dog we’d bought Briar three years before.
Her name was Mandy.
‘After I got everyone out, I went back in to try to put out the fire,’ Briar explained. ‘There was so much smoke and I couldn’t see, but I felt Mandy rub against my leg. I grabbed hold of her and she led me outside.’
I couldn’t believe it. The dog had saved my boy’s life.
After comforting the children, I went back outside to watch as the fire tore through the last of the house.
I wanted to get a last glimpse of our home before it was gone forever.
All the baby photos —everything’s gone, I thought with sadness.
‘Is everyone out?’ a fireman asked as he approached me.
‘Yes, except our two kittens,’ I replied.
Sadly, they hadn’t made it.
I noticed paramedics had arrived and were checking each of the kids over.
'I'm just glad that you're all safe'
‘We need to take Briar to the hospital. He might have inhaled too much carbon monoxide,’ a paramedic told me.
Because of Sawyer’s condition, they wanted to get her checked too.
I hopped into the back of the ambulance to go with them, while Jay stayed behind.
‘Your son’s a hero,’ one of the paramedics told me on the way. ‘He got his siblings out of danger.’
She had tears in her eyes.
She made a phone call and when we arrived, we were greeted with a hero’s welcome.
A line of doctors clapped for Briar as we were escorted into A&E.
We were all in tears.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t save the cats, Mum,’ he said.
‘Oh, don’t be sorry, you did everything right,’ I told him.
‘You shouldn’t have gone back in to try to stop the fire, though, but I’m just glad you’re OK.’
Tests showed the levels of carbon monoxide in his system were slightly high, so he was put on oxygen.
Sawyer was too, just to be on the safe side.
A few hours later, Jay showed up after leaving the kids with my best friend.
‘The house is gone,’ he cried.
He pulled me into a hug and we sobbed together.
We felt so lost, but thankfully the hospital staff rallied around.
They paid for a night’s stay at a nearby hotel and they made lots of phone calls.
Our neighbours organised a donation drop-off point.
Even complete strangers were donating everything from nappies to food.
I was overwhelmed by their kindness.
At 3am the next morning, Briar and Sawyer were discharged. We were all so exhausted.
Soon, my best friend dropped the kids over to us and as we trudged back to the hotel, I couldn’t get my mind around how surreal the day had been.
‘I hope the kids won’t be too traumatised,’ I whispered to Jay.
With nowhere to go, a charity paid for us to stay at the hotel for two more nights.
Luckily, through different charities we were able to stay there for 10 more nights free of charge.
It was a lifeline.
Each day, I went back to the rubble that was once our home.
I’d sift through, trying to find anything that had survived.
I managed to salvage my gran’s wedding ring, two baby books and a camera.
Astonishingly, the chip inside was OK so I was able to rescue the photos from my girls’ christenings.
A neighbour offered for us to stay in his empty mobile home and we ended up living there for three weeks.
In the meantime, a friend of mine set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations for a deposit on a new house.
I was gobsmacked when we managed to raise £10,000.
Our new home was only down the road from our old one.
The fire department investigated the cause of the fire and deemed it to be an electrical fault.
It could have been down to a light socket we’d had replaced just four hours earlier.
As soon as Briar had smelt smoke, he’d got all his sisters out in the space of a minute.
I’m so proud of my boy, the hero. If it weren’t for his quick thinking, I could have lost a lot more than my house that day.
That’s why I think it’s so important that all children are taught about fire safety from a young age.
I’ll make sure all my kids know their big brother saved their lives.
I have a feeling he’ll always be their protector.
Kelly Omar, 35