Single mother of three talks about the trauma after a Battersea flat fire

A single mother has spoken out about her nightmare experience of living through a large fire in a block of Battersea flats.

On Tuesday October 12th, around 70 firefighters rushed to a tower on Westbridge Road, Battersea to battle a fire on the 20th floor, just after 8:00pm.

Marianna Demetri, 40, mum of a 17-year-old son, 10-year-old daughter and four-year-old son, has been living in a Travelodge in Clapham Junction since the fire which is believed to have been accidentally caused by a candle in another flat.

Fortunately there were no deaths and a child was taken to hospital.

In a tweet the mother of three said: "It's honestly like me and my kids are living a bad nightmare with no way out."

Demetri told the Local Democracy Reporting service that her neighbour alerted her to the fire and told her to get out.

She said: "I shut the door, I went back, my kids were screaming, we were trying to find our shoes, my reaction was do I put a wet towel over my kids' mouths.

"I opened the door again to come out and smoke came into the flat.

"It was thick, white smoke and as soon as it entered the flat the smoke alarm started going off.

"We couldn't even see the way to the stairs.

Demetri recalled the moment she thought an explosion went off once they got outside.

She later discovered it was the blast from the windows as they shattered under the pressure of the fire.

"All the glass was just hitting us on the top of our heads and then we literally stood there outside the block and watched it burn," she recalled.

Demetri says her daughter was screaming and has been left traumatised, she is now receiving counselling at school.

The damage from the fire is not her only concern, the flat suffered from awful damp and she now fears it will have worsened considerably after being shuttered for a month.

After the trauma of the fire Demetri says a liaison officer told them to stay with family that night, the council had no plan in place.

Demetri is now sharing a bed with her two youngest children as her daughter is too scared to leave her.

She said the council have been unresponsive and have not been giving her updates.

Demetri added: "We've had no help and the council can't help us financially so I'm having to pay for breakfast, lunch, dinner, takeaways - it is an actual joke the amount of money that I've spent.

"It's like fighting in a battle I'm never going to win."

A spokesperson from Wandsworth Council said: "in the immediate aftermath of the fire we arranged for this tenant and her children to be rehoused temporarily in a hotel while repairs to the communal areas of the block were carried out.

"She is currently booked into the hotel for another five days and if the repairs are complete by that date she will then be able to return to her home.

"We are in touch with her and happy to discuss any concerns she may have."

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