Family left homeless after ‘e-bike’ fire destroyed everything they owned

'It's devastating - it's hard to get through a day without crying.'

A family have been left homeless after everything they owned was destroyed in an ‘e-bike fire’.

Simon Blanshard’s three-bedroom home went up in flames after the electric bike’s battery set on fire while it was on charge, he suspects.

The 40-year-old, his five children and partner, Laura Natale, 25, were all out of the house at the time.

But he says they’ve lost absolutely everything and they are now having to sofa-surf.

Simon, who is currently unemployed, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said: ‘Pretty much everything has been destroyed.

‘Whatever hasn’t been burnt, has been damaged by smoke so there’s nothing in the house we can salvage.

‘We are sofa-surfing at my partner’s mum’s at the minute – we are basically homeless.

‘It’s devastating – it’s hard to get through a day without crying.’

Simon and Laura had taken their three-week-old daughter, Georgia, to hospital, so were out with their children when the property in caught fire.

He then received a call from a neighbour on July 9, informing him about the incident, but by the time he got back home, he says the house was ‘pretty much destroyed’.

Simon said: ‘I came back home and by the time I got there, there was fire engines on the street and all the neighbours were out.

‘The house was pretty much destroyed. All I could think was “what do I do now?” because I’ve got five kids and we’ve got nowhere.’

Simon believes the fire was caused by an e-bike battery and is thankful that none of his children were in the property.

He said: ‘It was lucky that none of the kids were in the house.

‘But then again, if I was in the house then I could have stopped it and that’s what is going through my head.

‘I’m glad nobody was in the house but then I wish I was.’

Simon is now warning people on the dangers of e-bike batteries as he ‘doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else’ as it could have been ‘a lot worse.’

He said: ‘I’ve been seeing anyone on Facebook mention e-bikes and the batteries for them, then I will give them a warning.

‘I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.

‘Especially because it could have been a lot worse – it could have been on charge when we were all going to bed.’

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