A fundraiser has been created to help a Cliftonville pensioner after her home of 28 years was ravaged in a five hour blaze last month.
Jane Moore, 70, was helping out at a Northdown Road charity shop on April 28 when the owner of the International Food Centre rushed over to tell her that her house was on fire.
The mother-of-six rushed home to find fire crews dealing with the blaze as it spread from the kitchen to the upstairs rooms.
Four fire engines attended the scene in Norfolk Road, arriving at around 3.30pm and not winding up until 8.23pm.
The fire tore through key parts of her house, leaving behind destroyed ceilings, charred walls, exposed wiring and uninhabitable conditions.
Now Jane, who has worked as a hospital chef, school support worker, youth worker, adult special needs carer and foster carer to 12 children, is faced with huge repair costs, particularly for blown out windows, electrics, structural repairs, an overhaul of her kitchen and one bedroom and replacing lost goods.
Jane, who is currently staying with friends, although returning each day to clean up her home as much as possible, said: “When the proprietor (of International Food Centre) came over and said ‘do you know your house is on fire,’ I just dropped everything and ran home.
“The fire brigade said I couldn’t go in, I had two cats in there but they are ok.
“Thick black smoke was coming from the front bedroom and the back of the house and I was just, ‘oh my God.’
“Then another fire (engine) came and they had to go around next door to get to the back of my house.
“There was a false wall between the main wall and the kitchen sink and the fire had gone up through that gap and into the bedroom, wardrobe, chest of drawers.
“Black smoke continued until about 7.30pm and then another (engine) with a ladder came.
“They said they had to go into the roof to see if there were any hot spots, so they had to make a hole and take tiles off.
“Luckily there were no hot spots and it all calmed down just after 8pm.”
Jane, who is also a carer for her brother, said some areas downstairs escaped damaged because, thankfully, the doors had been shut.
She added: “Upstairs it was completely black, the smoke had travelled where the door was open and decimated everything. There were two rooms where the doors were shut and they are ok, so shut your doors, but the front and back bedrooms were completely black.
“The bay window was blown out but although the board and wood were charred, luckily it didn’t go into the roof too much.”
Jane says she is still paying a mortgage for the house, which is ‘difficult’ on a pension and sadly did not have building and contents insurance. She added that her mortgage payments had doubled since 2022.
She added: “Over the last 13 years my house has been like a building site and I had just finally got it how I wanted it.”
During the last three weeks Jane has been at the house every day cleaning it with a solution.
Unfortunately, she says, her children all live a good distance away but other people have helped, clearing out the bedrooms for her. However, there is still a huge amount of work to be done to make her home habitable again.
Friend Junior Job has set up the fundraiser in a bid to help Jane. He says Jane has always been a massive support to him.
On the fundraising page he says: “Jane is a kind and hardworking person who would never ask for help unless it was truly needed. Now, she needs her community more than ever.”
That’s quite devastating.
But again and again we read stories in the IoT News where the consequences of a fire have been made worse because the householder had no insurance?
Why not?
I thought that a condition for a mortgage was that buildings insurance was taken out?
She said her mortgage doubled & as a result couldn’t afford it-another victim of capitalist market forces. The only intervention made by government was by Labour also taking her winter fuel allowance away.
I’m going to cancel my house and life insurance and take out the “Go Fund my incompetence” insurance instead!
Seems the way forward these days!
top tip john , well worth thinking about
We all pay for insurance through gritted teeth. Although I agree this lady should have had building insurance we would be more than happy to offer some pro bono building surveying services/project management. Regardless of her being uninsured we need to support our community.
Jane drop me an email at [email protected] and we can meet to discuss.
Its time mortgage companies demanded proof of Buildings & Contents insurance! I am a former member of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), long retired, and when I was in practice as a Chartered Building Surveyor, tried to get Landlords to take out Contents insurance on behalf of tenants, because few had it! Consequently if a tenant suffered a fire, or in some cases flooding, or other damage to their posessions, they had to make good the loss themselves. Landlords may have Buildings Insurance, but not Contents!
Why would anyone be expected to insure someone else’s possessions? If a tenant chooses not to pay for insurance that’s a matter for them. It seems wholly inequitable to suggest that a third party should step in.
Eric, I was referring to professional landlords who had multiple properties to let, and I know of one case when one of these negotiated a very good deal with an insurance company. The cost was minor, and was included in the rent.
I can’t believe some of these comments this lady has lost alot she has helped so many and yet you moan she should have this and that we’ll its unfortunate that she has not got any insurance with the extra expense that we all have to pay and the mortgage is horrendous of course we should all have insurance but I’m sure alot of us don’t even those moaning now she isn’t asking for anything of anyone a friend of hers is now its totally your choice to help or not so please stop moaning about someone else because they couldn’t afford insurance and scroll by I truly hope you can get has much help has you deserve I’m so sorry that you have had to go through this and lose alot I will help where I can when I can big hugs much love God bless us all x
Another self-appointed moderator. Nobody is “moaning”, just pointing out a few simple facts. Basic house insurance is not expensive, and anyone choosing to do without it has to accept the consequences of that choice if things go wrong. Or perhaps you think we should all do without it then get out the begging bowl should the worst happen. These funding sites are fine where someone suffers unavoidable hardship through no fault of their own, but I’m sure they were never meant to absolve individuals of the consequences of their own negligence or stupidity.
If someone wants to contribute towards a crowdfunder for this or other causes then good for them ( and the recipient)
Personally I’m tired of supporting,others through , what is effectively, hidden taxation.
Waterbills are inflated by around 10% to cover those that don’t pay and to avoid the legal costs and inconvenience of ccjs. Then there are social water tariffs , which again i’ll be subsidising.
Gas and Electric, my bills again bumped up to ensure that people didn’t lose out when the “cheap” suppliers went skinnt and again those debts written off or the social tariffs.
Council tax bills bumped by roughly 10% for social care, even though as a homeowner i’ll be expected to cover all my care costs ( if needed) until the moneys gone.
Then there’s the cost of council tax support.
All these taken from taxed income,
It’s way past the time that all these cross subsidies came from central gov and paid from the income tax revenue , that way we’d see the true extent of our levels of taxation and see the real level of support those on benefits really receive.
All the smoke and mirrors need to be removed so that the true costs are plainly seen. How is it possible to debate things if so much is hidden.