Fire rips through family home in Harwoods Road, Watford

The blaze in Harwoods Road, Watford, happened on Saturday (June 18) while birthday girl Isabella was at a golf party with her brothers Thomas, 10, William, six, and her parents.  

Her dad Sean said: “We had gone out to play golf for Isabella’s birthday, we were all set up to play the golf in the basement of the place.

Read more: 

Dozens of Asda trolleys found stolen following KSI and Logan Paul visit

Advice for those who need to travel by road or train during rail strikes

Watford business named and shamed by HMRC for £350,000 tax dodge

“Neighbours kept phoning us, but we were down in the basement, and we had it on silent with all the kids screaming so we missed the first couple of calls.

“My wife said ‘why am I getting all these unknown numbers?’ and when she answered one a neighbour told us the fire brigade were already outside our house.”

He added his wife is "really distraught", while Isabella, Thomas and William are not yet aware how much damage the fire did.

“We only showed them one photograph of the fire engines just in case they hear it in school, we don’t want them to see the damage and think about losing their toys or anything.

So sorry to hear that these children had their home affected by fire. Really hoping that they can still celebrate their birthdays. We can’t take the credit for these super cute doggies though as this is all down to our amazing sponsors @ComputacenterUK for providing them 👏👌👍 https://t.co/7tZ0SX3gYQ

— Fire Dog Reqs & Trainee Fire Dog Loki (@HertsFireDog) June 20, 2022

“The children aren’t quite big enough to really understand the extent of what happened.”

Sean, 44, described the response from the fire service and his neighbours as "unbelievable".

“It caught the whole back of the house, but a neighbour said he couldn’t believe how fast the fire brigade got there and sorted things out with everyone in position.

“By the time I got to the property the fire was already under control.”

Today the family are celebrating William’s sixth birthday but there is still a lot of work to be done to get back to normal.

Sean added: “Im dealing with insurance, the hotels were good over the weekend, but you can’t keep having three kids in all different hotels each night, it worked for an emergency but it’s not good enough.”

Firefighters posing with the toys

After hearing that the fire occurred on Isabella’s birthday, and just two days before William’s, the fire service arranged to deliver firefighter dog toys and are planning to give the children a tour of the station.

Sean said firefighters told him the cause of the fire is still inconclusive.