A FAMILY has been left devastated by a ground floor fire which killed two of their beloved dogs.

North Wales Fire and Rescue was called to reports of a house blaze in Pen y maes, Holywell, shortly after 7pm on Thursday.

The fire service has been praised by the occupants for arriving "within six minutes" of the call, and crews used six breathing apparatus, one thermal image camera and one main jet to tackle the flames.

Danny Humphreys, brother to Emma Humphreys who lives in the property, said the family has been left grief-stricken not only by the loss of personal things but by the death of their two Shih Tzu's, Max and Tilly.

He said: "They were really valued as pets. The firemen went to extra efforts to find the bodies in the house. One was found quickly but the other took longer. They offered to bury their bodies in the back garden, which they did. Hopefully the smoke got to them before the fire did.

The Leader:

"My sister is in a bad way because of the dogs. All the clothes have gone, things from the Christening and things like the bands from when they were born. It's irreplaceable things like photographs that she's lost."

The children's grandmother, June Dakin, 57, was shocked when she received the call while she was working as a cleaner on the evening of the blaze.

She said: "You don't believe it until you see it. Thank goodness no one was in the house when the fire started, the children were at their dad's. As long as the children are ok. You can fix the house, but you can't replace family. The children have nothing - they've gone to school in tracksuits, we're lucky it's the last day of school. They're better off in school.

The Leader:

"It's personal things that you lose, like the photographs of children when they were small."

Danny and family were on site the following morning clearing the charred debris from outside the property, which the fire service threw out the ground-floor window in their efforts to tackle the flames.

He said: "The house is almost a write off. It's just smoke. We're going to salvage what we can and get the clothes washed and furniture washed. All electricals are knackered and the house needs gutting.

The Leader:

"I came down when I heard about the fire, it was quite an inferno. We just don't understand how it started."

A spokesman said the cause of the fire was "accidental radiated heat," for example a device which has accidentally overheated and radiated onto another nearby object.