Woman who survived fatal fire started by her ex says she ‘couldn’t save’ family

A woman broke down in tears as she described how she ‘couldn’t save’ her sister and her three children as they were killed in a house fire.

Antonia Gawith’s sister, Bryonie, died alongside her children on August 21 last year when Antionia’s ex, Sharaz Ali, set fire to the property.

Ali is accused of going to the house to ‘take revenge’ on his former partner, who was staying with her sister after ending their ‘abusive’ seven-year relationship earlier that month.

On Thursday, Doncaster Crown Court jurors saw Antonia’s video interview with police, where she sobbed as she described trying to get help for her sister, nieces and nephews as the house became engulfed in flames while they were trapped inside.

She said she had been in Bryonie’s bedroom after finishing her shift at Tesco, and Ali had been messaging her, accusing her of being with another man.

Antonia said her sister told her to ignore him and started to fall asleep when she heard the house’s ring doorbell bleep and started walking downstairs.

‘The door was kicked through and Sharaz and another man were standing there, but the man who kicked the door ran straight off,’ she told police.

‘(Ali) started pouring petrol on me. I was saying ‘please don’t, I love you, I’ll come back, don’t do this’. I was begging, I would say anything just so he wouldn’t do it.’

Antonia described trying to get the petrol and a lighter out of Ali’s hands before running out of the house, thinking he would follow her.

‘I was screaming for help, but he didn’t follow me. I ran back to the house, and as I ran back, my sister kicked him down the stairs, and then I tried to get him out,’ she said.

‘I pulled the petrol off him and tried to get him out, and then he hit the lighter. I saw him set on fire, and all the stairs, and my sister.’

Antonia said the front door then swung shut, and when she managed to open it there was ‘fire everywhere’.

Antonia told police she ran around to the back door, but it was jammed, and she started kicking it while ‘screaming and shouting’ for her sister to get out.

She said Bryonie, who had rung 999 while coming down the stairs, threw her phone out of the window. Antonia picked it up and told them to send the police, ambulance and fire brigade.

‘I was just screaming, trying to get back in the house, and I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t save them,’ she said tearfully.

Antonia told officers that police arrived and broke through the door, pulling Ali out, but that by the time the fire brigade arrived, it was too late to save Bryonie and the children.

‘I just wanted to save them, and I just couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything. They wouldn’t let me go up – I just wanted to be with her. I was covered in petrol, so they were trying to keep me back,’ she recalled.

Bryonie, 29, and her children, Destiny Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, died in the blaze.

Ali, 40, of no fixed address, and Calum Sunderland, 26, of Calton Street, Keighley, are charged with murdering Bryonie and the three children and attempting to murder Antonia.

Mohammed Shabir, 45, who had been due to go on trial with them, died of a heart attack last month after collapsing in prison.

Prosecutors say Shabir drove to and from the house while Sunderland kicked the door in.

Ali and Sunderland deny the charges, and the trial continues.

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