An Aberdeen mother has spoken of her fears she and her two children could have been “goners” after fire tore through her family home.
Sam Wilson, 25, had been shopping with her two youngsters Jack and Amy, one and three respectively, when she got a call saying the smoke alarm had gone off in her council flat on Hilton Drive on Thursday afternoon just before 4pm.
Miss Wilson rushed back to the property, only to find black smoke billowing out of the windows of her house, where she has lived for the past three years.
After fire teams extinguished the blaze, they hauled out the burned wreckage of Miss Wilson’s tumble drier, which had been switched off, but plugged into an active socket.
Miss Wilson said: “When I first got home and saw the fire and spoke to the police, I felt sick, my legs gave away beneath me and I felt like I was going to pass out.
“I got put into the ambulance because my heart rate was racing, and my blood pressure was really high.
“The fire inspector looked over the tumble drier, and told me it was definitely the cause.
“My house is just completely black with the damage, it’s just not a home anymore.
“The lobby, the roof, everything is just so badly damaged from the fire and the smoke, we’ve lost pretty much everything, but it could have been so much worse.
“If we had been asleep me and the kids would have been goners.
“If there’s one thing I would say, it would be for everybody to think about putting off your appliances at the wall, because you could lose your house like I have.”
Miss Wilson was only able to salvage a couple of drawers full of clothes for her kids and her father’s ashes from the home, and has subsequently stayed at the home of her sister Steph.
But after an online appeal by her family, parents from all across Aberdeen have donated dozens of toys, packs of kid’s clothes, mattresses and even a full bunk bed to help the family get back on their feet.
Miss Wilson said: “We are very, very grateful for all the help we’ve been given.
“I’ve been crying so much today with all the donations we’ve been given – it will take some time but we’ll get there.”