Family loses everything in Cowes house fire

A woman who was woken up by her brother, as a blaze ripped through their home, has spoken of the devastation the fire has caused her family.

Aria Legaspi was asleep in her first-floor bedroom in the family home in Arctic Road, Cowes, when the fire started downstairs around 11am on Tuesday. Aria, 29, mother Annabelle, 64, and brother Paulo, 27, were rescued by firefighters and taken to St Mary’s Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
The house has been badly damaged and the family are now in emergency accommodation, while Aria’s sister-in-law, Micha Gail Andal, has set-up a GoFundMe page to support the family, who are distraught.

The family have lived at the house since 2013, and Aria said: “I am a support worker for the Ryde House Group and had finished a night shift.
“I got home about 8.30am and went to bed. I was fast asleep when my brother burst into the bedroom around 11am, screaming at me to get up because of the fire.
“I thought at first he was playing some kind of prank, but I just grabbed my phone and went into the hallway. As I went down the corridor, it was full of smoke which hit me as I got to the stairs. It was so black, I couldn’t see.
“When I got downstairs, I saw mum, who had been in the kitchen, at the entrance to the lounge. She didn’t want to leave, because everything she owned was in the house, but we had to push her out.

“My brother saved my life, otherwise I would never have woken up. I was so lucky he was working on his computer in his room at the time.”
Annabelle, a nurse at St Mary’s, was planning on retiring, and Aria added: “We have lost everything; there’s nothing left, not even our pictures. It all happened so quickly; we don’t even know what started it.”

Appliances from Newport, Cowes and Ryde attended the fire as well as an Incident Command Unit from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service.
Neighbouring homes were evacuated while the firefighters in breathing apparatus contained the fire with main jets and hose reels. An investigation into the fire is taking place.
Over £4,000 has already been raised on the fundraising page at gofundme.com/f/2ddlcmtzoo.