Tributes paid to Littlehampton flat fire victim

A MOTHER has paid loving tribute to her ‘larger than life’ son who was killed in a tragic flat fire in Littlehampton.

Grieving Mitzi Price, of Sheep Fold Avenue, said she was ‘heartbroken’ when she discovered the news her son, Terry Davies, had been killed following a blaze in his home, on Thursday.

Speaking to the Gazette, Mitzi, 46, said: “Terry was larger than life.

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“He was bubbly. Rooms just lit up when he walked into them. He had a wicked laugh that would attract everyone’s attention.

“It was infectious. When he really, really laughed you couldn’t help but laugh with him. He was very kind and gentle and would do anything he could to help someone. He was just a really lovely boy.”

Mr Davies died in the early hours of Thursday morning when a fire broke out at his seafront home, in South Terrace.

Firefighters were called to the property – a three-storey block of flats – at about 12.45am to find the blaze raging in the front hall.

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When fire crews broke into the building, they found the body of Mr Davies in the third-floor flat at the rear of the house, where he lived alone.

Mr Davies, a former pupil at the Georgian Gardens Primary School, in Rustington, and at the Palatine School in Worthing, worked as a cashier at the new Morrisons supermarket, in Wick.

It was here he met his partner Kerry Stark.

Miss Stark revealed that love had soon blossomed between the two and that Mr Davies had really ‘come out of his shell’.

“The whole mood at Morrisons has just changed,” admitted the 19-year-old. “Terry was really loved by everyone – all the staff and the customers.

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“Even when he wasn’t working, he would still try to help customers with the shopping if he was in the store.

“He was the sort of man who was just liked by everyone. He was very kind and gentle. Everyone has been shocked by his death.

“He used to be a fairly quiet man but was really starting to come out of his shell and into his own.”

For the full story, see today’s Littlehampton Gazette (Thursday, September 19).