Mother and son "lucky to be alive" following Peacehaven house fire

Rosemary Moffett, 75, and her son Jason Moffett, 42, were asleep on Wednesday (July 6) morning in their 2-bed bungalow on Piddinghoe Avenue, when a fire that had emanated from a microwave, started to spread through the kitchen and living room.

Jason said: “It was about 3:30am and my mother has no sense of smell, and she woke up thinking she was blind because she couldn't see anything because of the black smoke.

“The alarm for some reason didn't work, so my mum started screaming about the fire.

“We both woke up and must have crossed paths in the hallway, because we couldn't see each other.

“So I’ve run to one room and she has run to another, and I've gone to the guest room at the front of the house and screamed fire to get the neighbour’s attention.”

After Jason managed to escape the property, he realised his mum had not yet escaped the building.

Jason continued: “After I got out of the house, I couldn't see my mum and I was thinking that I couldn't leave her behind.

“So, I went back in on my hands and knees and wrapped a t-shirt around my face and was crawling looking for her.

“You couldn't see anything in there, there was no light at all, it was pitch black.

“Then all of a sudden, I could hear shouting and it was my mum telling me to get out.”

“She had come into my bedroom to warn me, but I had legged it out, so she had dived out of my four-foot window and bruised her arm.

“Then all the neighbours were screaming and I couldn't see where I was going, but I managed to get a window just as three fire engines were pulling up and they helped me out.”

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said they were called to Rosemary and Jason’s property, just after 4am.

Firefighters from Newhaven, Roedean and Preston Circus attended and used two Breathing Apparatus and one Hose Reel Jet to extinguish the fire.

Firefighters then used a Positive Pressure Ventilation fan to clear the property of smoke.

Both Rosemary and Jason were handed over into the care of South East Coast Ambulance Service after suffering from smoke inhalation.

Now, after being discharged from hospital, the pair have lost all of their possessions and are living at a hotel with just the clothes on their back.

Their friend Toni-Marie Few has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help ‘rebuild their lives’.

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Jason said: “We are lucky to be alive, but we have nothing left. Our house now looks like the Upside Down world in Stranger Things.

“Everything has been destroyed, we are going to have to have a new room/window, carpet door. Every wall will have to be re-plastered as well. It will take 6-7 months for the house to be repaired.

“When I went back in there I was just like ‘wow’ because where do you even start? It’s heart-breaking because that has been my home for ten years and my mum’s home for seventeen.”

To donate to Rosemary and Jason’s GoFundMe click here