A LEIGH family which lost its home a week before Christmas say they still hope to sell their fire-damaged property, if they can restore it to its original condition.

A faulty tumble dryer sparked the kitchen fire which forced Rebecca Bull and her family from their Nelson Drive home on Monday morning – the very day she was due to exchange contracts on a new home.

Echo:

Ms Bull, 38, was woken by her fire alarm, and got her two daughters out of the burning building.

She said: “The whole house is gutted. If you saw the back of the house, you wouldn’t believe the damage. It goes right up to the third floor.

“The people buying our house still want to buy, thankfully, so I will just have to get everything back to how it was before. We just have to hope the people we’re buying from are able to delay a bit.”

The family are now staying with Ms Bull’s parents.

She said: “It’s nice for the kids to be with their grandparents for Christmas but it’ll be strange not being in our own house.”