A Burnham-On-Sea home owner who faces a big repair bill after his house was badly damaged in a fire at the weekend says he’s been “hugely humbled” by an outpouring of support from residents in the town.
A fundraising page has been set up to help Glenn Cutter who did not have home insurance. He had recently done research on insurance renewal deals earlier in the month and had not completed the purchase.
As reported here, Burnham and Bridgwater fire crews were called to Priestley Way at 1pm on Saturday (February 15th) to tackle the blaze, which had started accidentally in a tumble dryer.
The fire service said the blaze left fire damage to 50 per cent of the ground floor and 30 per cent of the 1st floor along with substantial smoke damage.
Talking to Burnham-On-Sea.com, Glenn says he’s hugely grateful for the fast response of the fire service.
“I can’t praise them enough. The time from the 999 call being made to the crews arriving was just seven minutes. They were just incredible and certainly prevented it from spreading further.”
“The whole thing has come as a huge shock. I am the physio at Burnham Rugby Club and had travelled with our first team to Nailsea on Saturday where I got a call to say my house was on fire. It was a terrible moment. I rushed back to Burnham and the fire crews were still on scene.”
“The crews found it had started in the tumble dryer, but the baffling thing is that it was not switched on at the time. I had used the dryer earlier in the day and turned it off, the dryer door was open, with towels inside.”
“I had gone to the rugby and a relative had come to the house and smelt smoke. They opened the door to my utility room and found flames pouring out of the dryer and immediately phoned 999. My dog, Jess, was fortunately rescued from the lounge.”
“There had been about three hours between the dryer being used and the fire being found, so it must have been latent heat inside or an electrical issue.”
“The other thing that I always do that probably prevented more damage is to close the internal doors in the house when I go out. It’s mainly to keep the dog in one place, but also can stop fires from spreading. Doing it certainly saved my house.”
Glenn adds that “the house is structurally sound, but there’s a lot of fire damage inside. I’ve filled one big skip already and have another on the way. The utlity room is gone and two other rooms and the hallway, while the lounge, diner and kitchen will need new ceilings plus there’s repairs due to smoke damage upstairs.”
“No-one was hurt, and that’s the most important thing.”
“Sadly for me, though, it’s especially gutting because I didn’t have home insurance. I was looking through the quotes online just a couple of weeks ago and didn’t press ‘go’. I wanted to do more research and got distracted.”
He adds: “I’m hugely humbled and grateful for all the donations on the fundraising page which has been set up by the Rugby Club. The support and generosity has been overwhelming. I’m massively grateful. You don’t realise how people feel until something like this happens.”
“I’ve been receiving so much help from family, friends, and locals to help with the clean up too – the guys from the rugby club and lifeboat station have been amazing. I can’t thank them all enough.”
