A mother in Kildare appealed for help after an abnormal fire left the whole family homeless.
Inga Valatkiene, her husband and children were desperate for a place to live following the horror of their house fire in Hazelhatch Park in Celbridge on Monday.
Inga’s husband Donatas was at work when he received an urgent call from their neighbor saying that she could hear an alarm go off in their house.
She told Dublin Live: “The neighbor said she could smell the smoke upstairs in her house.
“We have an outdoor camera, and my husband tried to check it right away but it didn’t work because the WiFi was down at this point. So he figured something was wrong with the electricity.”
On his way home, he received another call from their neighbor who told him that she was standing outside their house and that she could see something black through the kitchen window.
The family dog, Bailey, was trapped inside the house, but a brave neighbor rushed into the house and rescued the poor dog who had been hiding in the attic.
Inga said: “Firefighters said the fire started in an alarm sensor in the house and it was an electrical fire.”
The family moved into the house in 2008, three years after the estate was built.
“The alarm was there from the start. It was a little sensor above the living room door.
“It started from there, but luckily for us we had closed most of the doors in the house because of Bailey and that kept the fire from spreading everywhere.”
She added: “But the damage is still important. On the ground floor, everything must be removed, including the walls. Upstairs it is not too serious because the doors to the rooms were closed so you just have to to treat the walls.
“The conversion of the attic was bad because the smoke was rising and everything had to be removed from there.”
Bailey was rushed to the vet by the friendly neighbor.
“She was all black and they said what we saw on the walls was in her lungs. She was a little sore the first two days but had three injections and now she is taking medicine.
“We had to go back to the vet because her eye was all infected and she couldn’t open it. It was probably from the smoke.”
Today Inga, Donatas and their two sons, Rojus, 11, and Kajus, 7, live with their neighbors until they can find temporary accommodation.
She fears that they may not be able to return to their house before Christmas.
Inga said there was no AirBnB available in the area and hotel rooms were too expensive.
She also contacted real estate agents, but had no news.
If you think you can help Inga and her family, drop us a line at [email protected] or [email protected] with the subject line “Celbridge house fire”.
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