A MOTHER-of-five has spoken of her devastation after a fire ripped through her home destroying her children’s clothes and toys.

Jameela Bi and her husband Saeed Newaz were alerted by a neighbour as they shopped in Manchester when smoke was spotted billowing out of the property in Accrington.

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The couple, who have lived in the terraced house in Hopwood Street for 12 years, raced back to the scene to find a team of 12 firefighters battling the flames.

The blaze tore through the house shortly after noon yesterday causing severe damage to the first floor front bedroom, where it is believed the fire started, and an upstairs corridor.

The fire, which also caused serious smoke damage to the rest of the property, badly damaged £10,000 worth of Asian gold given to Jameela by her late father Mohameed Afser before her wedding.

Also lost in the fire were the clothes and toys of the couple’s children, one-year-old Hira, Anisah, eight, Aamima, nine, Amaan, 11 and Adman,12.

At the time of the fire Adman was off sick from school and at a neighbour’s house along with Hira, with the other children at Spring Hill Primary School in Exchange Street.

Jameela, 34, said: “I’m absolutely devastated and I’m in complete shock.

“This is the last thing that I expected when we went shopping.

“I’m so upset that my children have lost everything and I can’t bare to bring them back here because I don’t want them to see what has happened.

“It’s going to take a very long time to get over this and move back into the house.”

A joint investigation has been launched by the fire service and Lancashire Police and the British Red Cross Fire and Emergency Support Service are supporting the family.

Jameela’s sister, Shamz Akhter, who lived in the street up to a week ago, said: “This is such a horrible thing to have happened and everyone is really upset.

“It has hit my sister really hard because she has lost things that our dad gave her for her wedding day.

“There were a lot of things in that house that meant so much to her and they are now all gone.

“The firefighters took us inside to see the damage and it’s really bad.”

After extinguishing the blaze, firefighters from Hyndburn and Rawtenstall worked to clear the scene of debris and seal off the property so that the investigation could start.

The crews tackled the fire despite a 24 hour strike over a long running dispute over pensions which was due to end at 7am yesterday.

Volunteer firefighters had agreed to provide emergency cover during the period.

A fire service spokesman said: “We can’t rule in or out any possible causes for the fire at this moment in time.

“When we arrived the first floor bedroom at the front of the property was well alight and we set about bringing it under control.

“When the second pump arrived we went into the neighbour’s houses to check that there had been no damage to the loft space.

“At this stage we can’t say whether we are treating it as suspicious or not.”