Heartbroken family's appeal after fire destroys Swineshead home and takes lives of four beloved pets

The blaze on Sunday destroyed the home of Shaun Maguire who built the home himself ten years ago.

His dog and his parrot and two dogs belonging to his son and daughter-in-law Jake and Stacey Maguire were killed.

As well as his pets, Shaun lost his home and all his possessions in the blaze, which was caused by an electrical fault with the fridge freezer.

The family are now appealing for help with funding and labour to pull down what’s left of the house, which wasn’t insured, this weekend so they can then look at rebuilding.

Speaking to the Standard yesterday, Jake, who lives in Tamworth with his wife but had been at his father’s house at the weekend, explained how the three of them had gone to visit the nearby vintage steam fair, leaving the dogs at home.

They had been returning at about 11.30am when they had seen smoke and were shocked to see the fire engines outside Shaun’s home on Station Road.

They jumped out of the car to see the house ablaze and firefighters battling to put it out, but the open plan wooden structure was left gutted by the fire.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue say three appliances from Boston, Kirton and Donington attended the fire and used two hose reel jets, one main jet, four breathing apparatus, ladders and thermal imaging cameras, to extinguish the fire, with the last crew leaving the scene at around 7pm.

Jake and Stacy’s two dogs, Bertie and Millie, along with Shaun’s, Molly, and his parrot, Red, all died.

Jake said they were told by the fire investigator that the dogs hadn’t suffered, as they had been put to sleep by the fumes from the fridge-freezer smouldering.

“Not only did my dad lose his home but also his best friend and unfortunately so did I,” said Jake.

“Our dogs passed away inside the house and as you can imagine we are absolutely heartbroken and today we laid them to rest.”

The family have been touched by the level of support they have been shown since setting up a crowd-funding appeal on Facebook to help Shaun rebuild for the future.

“We’ve got about 20 people turning up at the weekend with spades, shovels, chainsaws, etc to help us get it down,” said Jake.

“Anyone helping would mean the world to us. We’ll be there from 9am Saturday. People can just turn up or contact me on Facebook.

“Within 12 hours of setting up the appeal, we had raised £500. Even complete strangers have been saying I can’t offer you much, but here’s a tenner.

“Someone has even offered my dad a caravan to live on so he can be back at home while we do this. He wants to be over there again from the weekend, and this is an incredible gesture.

“Human spirit is unbelievable.”

The funding will help pay for a JCB and skip for getting the house down, and they are now appealing for as many people as possible to turn up and help with the labour.

“My dad lost everything in this fire and had no insurance,” said Jake.

“He built this house with his bare hands and we will not be beaten by this fire. We need to demolish and rebuild. My dad lost everything in the fire and has nothing left. “Please, please, please if anyone can help in any way next weekend even just to move stuff into a skip then I would appreciate your time.”

Anyone who wants to help can go to the fundraising page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/donate/465043067415948/10219489942776904/

A Just Giving page has now been set up by the family and can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jakestaceymaguire?utm_term=Kk3nmR5xb