Mum faints in street watching family house burn down in fire started by tumble dryer

A mum fainted in the street as she watched her family’s home burn to the ground.

Bukola Akinpelu and her sons have ‘lost everything’ after a fire broke out in their tumble dryer and destroyed the semi-detached house in Allington, Kent within half an hour.

The family were left with just the clothes they had been sleeping in after Eni Luwoye, 26, heard a smoke alarm blaring downstairs around 1.30am on Monday while he was upstairs doing university work.

He went to investigate, opened the door to the utility room and saw it full of ‘clear grey smoke’. Eni said the dryer was ‘spinning round with flames inside’ and that he rushed upstairs to get his family out of the house.

Within seconds of leaving the house where they have lived for more than three years, the kitchen was engulfed by the fire. Six engines were sent, and around 20 firefighters battled the fire and gave the family blankets.

Eni, who manages a Premier Inn alongside his studies, said his mum and younger brothers Ayo, 16, and Bola, 17, stood watching the flames tear through the house until around 4.30am.

Bukola, who works as a mental health nurse on Sheppey and at a hospital in Essex, fainted while watching. She was treated by paramedics and has since recovered.

Firefighters left around 8am after battling the blaze for around six hours. Fire service investigators have told the family they believe the blaze was started by the dryer.

Eni said they had ‘lost everything’ in the fire. The family is now staying with relatives in Rainham, who are about to move home.

While they have home insurance, they do not have contents insurance. Bukola started a GoFundMe page for support, which has already raised £10,637 of its £12,000 target.

Speaking outside his home, her teenage son Bola said: ‘It’s a weird thing to feel after something of this magnitude can happen. But I feel hopeful thanks to all the compassion and all the love that we have got from our neighbours, the community and people on social media.

‘I still haven’t been able to respond to everyone that’s been sending me messages about it. We set up a GoFundMe yesterday, and it’s already at quadruple digits, which is insane to say.

‘So many people are helping us try to get back on our feet. I feel like for that amount of love, and for that amount of compassion to be shown by everyone involved, that means that people care.

‘It’s not a thing where people are just looking and scrolling. People actively want to make a difference in our lives. For that, I just really want to say thank you to everyone who played a role.

‘Everyone who shared, everyone who’s been sending lovely messages, prayers, and messages to God. It means everything to us because what is a world without people?’

Big brother Eni added: ‘We are essentially having to start again from square one. I literally came outside and just my boxers and my vest. No socks, no shoes, nothing. All my belongings. memories, photo albums, documents. It’s just devastating.

‘[So] the amount of people that I’ve actually supported [us] has been unbelievable. From the bottom of my heart, I’m really, really grateful. It’s really, really touching.

‘It’s just so special to see that people that you’ve never met from all over the world are able to kind of come together and support us.”

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