WHEN CHRISTMAS ENDS IN DISASTER!

What happens if the big day doesn't go to plan? Three women tell us why it wasn't what they'd imagined

'The kitchen was a furnace'

Keira Barrett, 36, works in a children's care home and lives in East Sussex with husband Wayne, 35, and children Cayden, 13, Miley, 11, and Eden, 19 months.

Shivering in my pyjamas, I looked back at my house in horror. The most magical day of the year was disappearing, along with my home, in clouds of black smoke.

I'd always loved Christmas, and becoming a mum only made it more wonderful. In September 2020, my partner Wayne, who I'd met through friends the previous year, and I discovered I was pregnant. As I hung tinsel around our house in early December, I was so excited. But four days before Christmas, I tested positive for COVID-19, which meant the kids would have to stay at their dad's.

As I lay on the sofa feeling dreadful, Wayne took our Christmas Day beef out of the oven, turned it off, then cuddled up beside me. We must have nodded off because I was suddenly woken by a loud crackling sound. I shook Wayne awake. He jumped up, opened the kitchen door and saw a fire at the back of the oven. In the seconds it took me to reach our front door and for Wayne to grab a wet towel to try to stem the flames, the kitchen was a furnace. I heard glass shatter and saw thick smoke everywhere as I ran into the street and called 999. Sobbing and terrified, I called my mum Sally and sister Jasmin, who lived close by. It was only seven minutes before the fire brigade arrived, but it felt like a lifetime.

Seeing them enter the house and Wayne emerge was a huge relief. He went to hospital to be checked over and was, thankfully, given the all-clear. When he arrived at Mum's later, he told me the fire service thought there had been an electrical fault in the oven. The kitchen was destroyed and the smoke had ruined everything. All the damage needed to be repaired and the building made safe before we could return.