Donations flood in to support family hit by Wisbech fire

The parents remain at Broomfields Hospital, in Chelmsford, in Essex, where their baby is being treated in the specialist burns unit while their three other boys aged two, four and seven, stay with family and friends.

Following the fire at their Wisbech home over the weekend, the local community has been showing their support. Donations have been made to the school attended by the older children and money totalling more than £1,000 pledged to help them get back on their feet.

A local firm has donated furniture, Tesco have offered to kit the boys out with new school uniform and Wisbech Lions have offered to help re-decorate their rented home.

Orchards Primary School head teacher Nicola Parker, who put a small message on the school website following the fire, said: 'I asked if anybody could bring items into school on Monday and expected a few bits of clothing and maybe some toys from our parents.

'I didn't expect to receive such an outpouring of support from so many. This proves how integrated this community is, look at all of this support.

'Here we have a family in need and other families have dug deep, it is heart warming.'

Donations include clothing, bedding, toys, colouring books and shoes.

Mrs Parker put out her message after seeing a call for help from Hayley Ogden who posted it onto a Wisbech Facebook group.

A day later the post was shared more than 400 times and has been seen by 19,000 people, Mrs Parker said.

Now the school is holding a cake sale on Wednesday and is looking for donations from local bakers to help raise funds.

The family also need men's clothing in a 34 inch waist long leg trousers and women's clothing size 10 to 12.

Fire investigators are working to establish a cause of the blaze, which started at around 8.30am on Saturday.

Three crews of firefighters from Cambridgeshire and Norfolk were called to the scene and spent most of the day damping down the area and making sure there were no other hotspots.