An Perthshire woman who lost everything in a house fire last week has described the terrifying moment she woke to a “wall of flame”.
Faye Moran, 32, had been sleeping in her rented flat on Kenmore Street in Aberfeldy when she was disturbed by the smell of smoke at around 10.30pm on Friday February 1.
Faye said: “I was sleeping because I hadn’t really slept the night before and I was working the next day.
“They say it was the smell of smoke that woke me up.
“When I got up it was warmer than usual and I went to the kitchen and there was a wall of flames coming up from behind the cooker.
“I tried to put it out first but the the heat was literally backing me out of the kitchen.”
Faye said she doesn’t remember how long the firefighters took to get there but she had hoped they were able to contain the blaze to the kitchen.
It was only when she returned to her home the next day she realised the full extent of the damage.
She said: “When I went back on Saturday mainly I just remember looking up and seeing the sky.
“I thought maybe the firefighters would have been able to save it but it was completely gone.”
Faye, who admits she is lucky to be alive, says she is still coming to terms with the ordeal.
She said: “I haven’t really processed it. I’m just trying to keep busy.”
The local community quickly rallied around Faye when they found how much she had lost in the fire.
Julie Dunbar, manager of the Schiehallion Hotel in Aberfeldy, offered rooms to those affected by the fire and started a fundraiser for Faye.
Julie said: “It was a gut reaction from me. It’s a quite time of year for us so thankfully we had rooms available.
“The community’s response has been amazing. I started an online fundraiser and people have been donating to the thrift shop.
“She literally had nothing. She came out the house with the clothes she had on her back.”
Faye said she was “gobsmacked” by the kind reaction of her local community.
She said: “I didn’t know why everyone was staring at me the next day. I had lost my phone so I didn’t have Facebook, so when my sister showed me that everyone was pitching in I was gobsmacked.
“I’m just really grateful.”
To donate to the fundraiser for Faye visit www.facebook.com/donate/243510336580895/
