Fashion designer and two children die in Boxing Day house fire
A fashion designer and her two children have died in a house fire that destroyed their home in the early hours of Boxing Day despite the efforts of her police officer husband to save his family.
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Fionnghuala Shearman, known as Nu, died alongside her children, Eve, aged seven, and four-year-old son Ohner.
Her husband, Tom, attempted to rescue his wife and two children but was beaten back by the severity of the fire and was taken to hospital for treatment.
Emergency services were called to a mid-terrace Cotswold stone cottage on Brimscombe Hill, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, at about 3am.
Gloucestershire Police said the father, who survived the blaze, was a serving officer with the force.
The fire was believed to have started on the ground floor and investigations were ongoing to establish the cause, but it was not being treated as suspicious.
A cordon remains in place at the address and an emergency services presence is expected to continue for several days, Gloucestershire Police said.
Detective Superintendent Ian Fletcher told reporters outside Gloucestershire Police HQ that the mother and father had been awoken by the fire and had attempted to reach their children in the rear bedroom.
He said: “They have been unable to get to the back bedroom due to the voracity of the fire.
"The father has smashed his way out of the house through a bathroom window in order to try to access the children's bedroom via the outside.
"He has been unable to enter the property via that bedroom window.
"He has then tried to re-enter the property through the bathroom window, by which stage the fire has taken hold in the bathroom and he's unable to get back into the upstairs bedrooms.
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"He has subsequently gone downstairs and tried to force entry via the front and the back door but has been unable to get back inside to the property.
"It is at this point our colleagues from emergency services have attended and have started managing and dealing with that fire."
The extent of the fire has caused the roof of the mid-terrace Cotswold stone cottage to fall in and the ceilings and stairs have collapsed.