Police in UK are investigating the causes of a house fire “on the coldest night of the year” that killed a young Portuguese father, his wife and seven-year-old son.
It is not yet known whether the deaths are being considered suspicious, but the Telegraph writes that detectives are working with the fire service “to try and establish the cause of the devastating blaze.
“Temperatures in the Reigate area fell to below freezing on Tuesday night, and investigators are examining whether the family lit a fire which they ran out of control”.
The three bodies were found “huddled together in one bed”, the paper added.
Adding to the tragedy is the fact that the fire raged without anyone apparently being aware of it. The family’s deaths were only discovered the next morning when Tiago Nunes’ employer “alerted police after Mr Nunes failed to turn up for work, and worried colleagues went to check on him”.
While locals are horrified by the family’s desperate end, here in Portugal Nunes’ family say they felt the world collapse under their feet when they were telephoned with the news.
Nunes’ brother told reporters that they do not have the money to pay for the bodies to be brought home for burial.
“We need help to bring them to my mother’s plot”, Carlos Nunes told Correio da Manhã.
Nunes’ wife Adriana was from Chile, but the family hope to bring her body over here for burial too, so that the family can remain ‘together’.
