Mum and two kids, seven and four, die in Boxing Day house fire

A mother and her two children have been killed in a fire that destroyed their home on Boxing Day.

Emergency services were called to the fire on Brimscombe Hill in Stroud, Gloucestershire, at around 3am on Friday.

A seven-year-old girl, a four-year-old boy, and their mother, aged in her 40s, were trapped in the burning building.

On Sunday, the body of the mother and a child were recovered but formal identification is yet to take place.

The father, confirmed to be a serving police officer by Gloucestershire Constabulary, was able to escape the fire and was taken to hospital.

Police said they are still working to recover the second child’s body, but the property’s unstable condition means officers have to proceed with caution.

The fire began on the ground floor of the house, and there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding its cause.

Local MPs and councillors previously described the fire as a ‘tragedy’ for the local community.

On Sunday, a young girl died in another house fire in a Kent village.

Firefighters attended the fire at a semi-detached home in Hamstreet near Ashford just after midday on Sunday.

Despite neighbours rushing into the burning house to save her, the young girl died, while another child, believed to be a teenage boy, remains in hospital after being rescued.

The house’s ground floor windows had been completely blown out and left charred by the fire, while Santa and Rudolph sleigh decorations lay deflated in the front garden.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is currently ongoing.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

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