MY TREE BURNT MY HOUSE DOWN

Tracey Azab, 42, was all ready for Christmas, until she woke to horror

- WORDS: HELEN O'BRIEN

As my daughters, Ellie, then 19, Layla, 16, and Mya, 13, placed baubles onto the Christmas tree, I watched as they all stood back to admire their handiwork.

It was December 2022 and, just like every year, the girls loved helping me decorate the tree with tinsel and baubles. A single mum, I thought back to all of the Christmases we'd spent together - always with my mum Shirley, then 66, who the girls called Nanny Teabag. And soon, we'd have another member of the family to join us. Ellie was pregnant with my first grandchild, due in early January, and I couldn't wait. 'This Christmas will be so special,' I told the girls.

Then on 20 December I was home alone while the younger girls were with friends. I'd taken Ellie to hospital early that morning as she'd been worried about the baby not moving. Fortunately everything was fine, but doctors kept her in. Crawling into bed at 5.30am, I was exhausted and wanted to catch up on some sleep. But four hours later, I woke to the smell of smoke. Opening my eyes in panic, the air in my bedroom was black. My house was on fire. My heart racing, I grabbed a pillowcase and held it over my mouth in a bid to stop breathing in the fumes. It was all happening so quickly.

STATE OF PANIC

I could hear the cracking and popping of the flames outside my bedroom door and thick, black plumes of smoke were streaming from underneath.