Family left devastated by blaze that destroyed house and left four beloved pets dead left overwhelmed by incredible support they have received

More than 40 people turned out to help Shaun Maguire and his son Jake and daughter-in-law Stacey clear the ruins of the home Shaun built himself that was destroyed by fire a week earlier.

Shaun’s Swineshead home was wrecked after an electrical fire last Sunday morning. His dog and his parrot died in the house, along with two dogs belonging to Stacey and Jake who were staying with them.

The family put out a heartfelt appeal for help with the clearing up process to allow them to then look at rebuilding Shaun’s home – which was not insured – and they were completely overwhelmed by the response they received.

“It’s been absolutely unbelievable,” Stacey said. “There are so many people we need to thank.

“The community support and the people that have come forward have blown us away. They’ve made a really, really, hard, tragic, devastating time seem a little bit easier.”

One of those who helped out was 11-year-old Kira Marson, who was the youngest helper over the weekend, despite having a broken arm.

The Maguires were so overwhelmed by her help that they decided to do something for her in return, and had a whip around on the day to raise cash to buy her a brand-new bike.

Stacey said that the whole process couldn’t have happened without the help of Ronnie and Terry Bennett of local firm Forceshift Skip Hire.

She said Ronnie, the owner, had messaged her and had come to the house last Friday to work out where to put skips.

“He said do you want it down now. We said yes, and he made it happen. What they did was absolutely unbelievable. The machinery alone they brought along for the demolition would have cost us thousands and thousands.”

The following day saw more than 40 volunteers turn up on the site to help clear the site of all the demolition rubble, putting it into skips provided by Forceshift.

She said they were so grateful to everyone who turned out to help, but wanted to particularly thank Shaun Claire of Swineshead who gave up his day on Saturday and brought his JCB to help get stuff into the skips.

Stacey also said a big thank you to Peter Lebond, his son Ian Lebond, and Debbie Stillwell, who are donating a static caravan for Shaun to live in until his home is rebuilt, and to Swineshead Co-op for their donations.

“Once we’ve rebuilt our lives and dad’s home we need to be able to look at what we can continue giving back because the community and our family and friends have just been absolutely unreal and we couldn’t have got through all of this without them.”

The family have now set up a Just Giving page to help raise £20,000 to rebuild Shaun's house. www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jakestaceymaguire?utm_term=Kk3nmR5xb