'My mum's house burned down three days before Christmas'

The daughter of a woman who lost everything in a house fire in Lancashire three days before Christmas says the reaction from the community has been "amazing".

Gill Burnside's house in Burscough caught fire early on Monday morning. Her daughter Jess Burnside was alerted by a neighbour, and said her and her mum had to stand there and watch "the house just burn". Two of her four cats died in the fire.

Gill only had contents insurance and no buildings insurance - and the family said the loss adjustors estimated the damage to the property to be in excess of £80,000.

But Jess said neighbours had sent "hundred of messages and comments offering help, from furniture, food, bedding, clothes and shoes".

Jess said her mum had now "literally lost absolutely everything", including two of her four cats.

"She left the house in a nightie and a handbag," she said. "A friend across the road had to give her a coat and had to give her shoes," Jess said of her mother.

They were able to recover the ashes of Gill's husband and parents, but "other than that, she's got nothing," Jess told BBC Radio Lancashire.

The house has been condemned and Gill is living in emergency accommodation with the two surviving cats, who were rescued by firefighters.

Jess thanked the "incredible" community around west Lancashire, which she said had kept her mother "going in a way".

Jess and her brother have started a fundraising campaign because Gill did not have building insurance.

After their father died, "we just presumed, naively... that it went over to my mum's name, and it hasn't," Jess said.

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