24-05-2025
Scots dad makes desperate attempts to save home from devastating fire
"It's unsafe, the roof can fall in any time, you can see inside the house now, and there are tiles hanging on by a thread."
A Scots dad has told how he desperately fought to save his house from being engulfed by a huge fire.
David Byars, 44, from Motherwell, had been burning chopped down conifer trees in an incinerator in his back garden when flames suddenly burst out of control.
The HGV driver has told how he left to speak to a neighbour for five minutes before returning to a rapidly spreading blaze in his garden.
As Glasgow Live reports, David had been keeping an eye on the three incinerators all day and had been allowing the fires to die down before disaster struck.
He said a tiny patch of fires the size of a football swiftly multiplied. After trying to tackle the flames himself with water and a neighbour's hose David frantically called 999.
David explained: "I grabbed a bucket of water and threw it over. By the time I returned with a full bucket of water, I returned to find it had spread from a tiny patch to four or five footballs.
"I threw that on and went to fill it again. My neighbour came around with a hose. By the time I came back around, I decided I needed to do something and phoned 999."
Due to wildfire in Shotts it took crews 40 minutes to arrive to his home and by that point the blaze had spread. By then the police arrived and moved him off the property.
David added: "Once the fire brigade arrived, they were brilliant, it's not their fault that there have been cutbacks. I could see smoke coming through the roof tiles, and I knew it was bad.
"As soon as I saw the fire had got through to the timber frame, I knew it was going to be an issue. Everything has been a whirlwind, but it also seems to have happened in slow motion.
"It had been on all day, and this was at 6pm. I don't know how it spread. The firefighters said the excess heat from the incinerators might have been enough to make it combust."
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service sent six appliances to the blaze at two properties on Muirhead Terrace on Tuesday, May 20, with 30 firefighters all in attendance.
A fundraiser has since been launched to help David, his wife Kimberly, 35 and their daughter 12, after the fire left many of their belongings destroyed and the house condemned. Thankfully, there were no injuries.
"It's unsafe, the roof can fall in any time, you can see inside the house now, and there are tiles hanging on by a thread. There are things we've not been able to rescue because we can't get to them or destroyed.
"But there is a bigger picture. The house can be replaced, and there have been sentimental things lost, but I remind myself that we've not lost anybody, which is the main thing.
"The house could have been burned to nothing, so at least we've been able to salvage some things with meaning to us."
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The GoFundMe was launched by Kimberly's colleague Steve to try and help the family, who are currently living in temporary accommodation, "back on their feet". More than £4,000 has so far been raised.
"Hazel, my daughter, basically has been left with nothing. We need to buy her some new clothes. She didn't have any shoes or anything.
"It'll be used first of all for necessities, and we'll take it for there. It'll be better used once we are back in a house and need to build things back up again.
"Everything has been overwhelming, but I can't believe the generosity of people. It's unreal. It shows that communities support each other when these things happen."
