'Oh my God, that's my house': Mum sees her home being gutted by fire while driving back

Corona Newton was cheering her daughter on at a football match when she learned her house was on fire.

The mum-of-five could see smoke in the distance as she made the panicked drive back to Shaw, watching on in horror as her home of 20 years burned.

“Literally everything has gone,” Corona, 52, told the Manchester Evening News. “Everything apart from what the kids were stood up in has been damaged.”

It took just minutes for the blaze to engulf the property, forcing her sons to flee. The devastating incident happened at midday on Saturday, February 25.

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The fire ignited in the loft and quickly spread throughout the house after civil servant Corona, who had been having issues with her electric shower, called out an electrician.

“There’s no roof,” Corona added. “There’s water damage that has gone all the way to the ground floor; there’s no ceiling in the lounge.

“I could see all the smoke and I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s my house’. I was driving up the hill and I could see the flames. My heart sank. It’s not something you expect on a Saturday when you go out for a football match.

“There were about five fire engines there at the time. It was all taped off. All I was bothered about were the kids.”

Thankfully, Corona’s children managed to flee the property unharmed. But the blaze was so devastating there is nothing left to salvage – meaning the family have lost everything they own.

“It’s all the little things that you don’t even think about,” she added. “I always kept my birth certificate in a separate file in the kitchen. We’ve lost everything. It’s the enormity of what needs replacing.

“A pair of football boots