Mum screamed ‘my babies, my babies, I’ve got to get them’ before they were tragically killed in blaze
A DESPERATE mum was heard screaming “I’ve got to get my babies” before they were tragically killed in a horrific house fire, neighbours revealed.
Three-year-old Desire Busuioc and her brother Louis, five, were trapped inside as the blaze ripped through their family home in Preston, Lancs.
The two tots were seen at the window of their terraced house alongside their sobbing mum Lorena as the blaze enveloped their home.
Thick black smoke formed in the room as neighbours shouted “drop the children, drop the children!” and gestured that they would catch them.
But Lorena, fearful of injuring the children, was seen to be searching for another way out.
Among the rescuers was nearby shopkeeper Malesh Nayli, 55, who described the dramatic attempts to save the family.
He and three customers dashed from his shop after a 13-year-old boy told them there was a fire and screams coming from a house two doors away.
Malesh said: “We ran straight round and immediately saw Lorena at the window with both the children.
“I think she was holding the little one and she was sobbing with her face black with smoke.
“Smoke was even pouring out of the window, it was that bad.
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“We were screaming ‘drop the children!’ We could see their little faces looking out but it all passed in a split second.
“Our first reaction was to kick in the front door but as soon as we did and opened the vestibule door it was a raging inferno.
“We were immediately driven back outside. Lorena was still crying at the window in a terrible state.
“By then the fire service had arrived and Lorena was down on the pavement.
“She was shouting ‘my children, I’ve got to get to my children’.
“The children were still in the property. It was just a scene of sheer panic, a dreadful position for a mother to be in.”
The witness said that Lorena had worked for him in the shop – and that he called her partner Lucian as soon as he could, who then rushed to the scene.
He said ambulance workers were performing CPR on the children before they were rushed to the hospital.
He added: “I later heard Louis was on a ward with his mother while the little girl was taken with her father to another hospital in either Manchester or Liverpool.
“It is a tragedy. They were part of a lovely family.”
Another neighbour Anthony Richardson also said: “The woman was on the outside windowsill and shouting ‘my babies, my babies’, and crying for help.
It is a tragedy. They were part of a lovely family.
Witness, Malesh Nayli
“Nobody could have entered the house with the amount of fire and smoke, and there was no way of getting up there anyway.
“I told the woman she had to jump, and that I would catch her, but she kept refusing, wanting someone to go up there to help her get her children.”
“By this stage, the window had cracked all the way along the top and was ready to blow at any second.
“I held my arms up and shouted ‘you have to jump now’. Luckily she did.”
As Anthony held the woman, who was trying to get back to her children, the window blew out and fire erupted.
Doctors battled to save the tots but medical intervention was withdrawn on Tuesday and they sadly died.
TRAGIC ORDEAL
Their mum Lorena, 23, was also trapped inside the blazing home and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The family are believed to have been originally from Romania.
Neighbours Hayden Wolstencroft and Demi-Lee Carroll, both 17, and their pal Gordon described how they broke into the house in a bid to save them.
Demi-Lee said: “I was in the street trying to get the mum to drop the kids down to me. She tried but she couldn’t do it.”
“Then she jumped out herself.”
The witnesses said both children were covered with soot and smoke as they were hauled from the burning building by firefighters.
And they say the dad then arrived home to find his children receiving CPR in the street.
Demi-Lee said: “He was screaming for his children.
“The emotion in his voice was just heartbreaking. It was the most horrific thing I’ve seen.”
Nikki, 33, was one of the first on the scene and wrapped the distraught mum in blankets.
She said: “She was conscious throughout and was just screaming ‘my children, my children.’
RIP ANGELS
“Knowing that they have died has really messed me up.
“I constantly see what I saw that day with smoke pouring from the back of the house.”
Nikki added: “The husband arrived while I was outside and he was in a right state.
“He was shouting and screaming but a lot of it was in a foreign language so I don’t know what he was saying.
“Then I heard him say ‘my wife!’ and he obviously thought she was still inside.
“I had to calm him down and tell him she was on the pavement.
“They rushed the children off to hospital and about twenty minutes later they took the mother in a wheelchair. She was just sobbing.”
Detective Chief Inspector Rach Higson, of Lancashire Police’s Major Investigation Team, said yesterday afternoon: “This tragic incident has resulted in two children sadly losing their lives.
“My thoughts, first and foremost, are with their loved ones at this time.
“Our enquiries into the cause of the fire are continuing.”
A 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.
He was bailed, and then later released with no further action.
