A CINDERFORD family lost their home in a fire on Christmas morning.

They discovered the fire at the property in Steam Mills Road after returning after a 20-minute trip to pick up some Christmas presents from another house.

Tragically, one of the family’s three dogs, a cockapoo called Teddy who had been a Christmas present last year, was not able to be rescued.

The community has rallied round with donations of clothes and other items, including help from the Salvation Army.

An online fundraiser has received more than twice the £2,000 target that was set.

Joanne Barnes and her daughters Ruby and Lily Collins-Norris had been joined around 10am by their sister Meghan English and her fiancé Tommy Penn to open gifts.

Meghan said: “Some of the bigger presents were at another house mum was supposed to move into in February.

“We were out for about 20 minutes – as we went to the front of the house, we all said it sounds like someone's having a fire

“Ruby opened the door and the door fell off into the house and smoke came out.

“The stairs were gone and things were falling.”

The family says the response from the local community has been “extraordinary”.

Joanne Barnes, her daughters Meghan English and Ruby and Lily Collins Norris and Meghan’s partner Tommy Penn had briefly left the house in Steam Mills Road and returned to find it on fire.

Ms Barnes, Ruby and Lily were able to move into a house that they were due to take on in February.

Meghan said: “It has been extraordinary to see the response and the help from so many people.

“People were dropping off clothes, bedding and furniture all day.”

A JustGiving page set up by Steam Mills-based drum tutor Jamie Frost had raised £4,300 by Monday – more than twice the target.

Some of that money will also go to neighbouring houses that were affected by the fire in the mid-terrace property.

The family also received help from the Salvation Army.

The family had gone to the other house to pick up Christmas presents and returned to the Steam Mills property to find it on fire.

The door fell in and smoke billowed out and they could see that the stairs had collapsed.

Two of the family three dogs, a Chihuahua called Mitzy and her puppy called Minnie.

The other dog, a cockapoo called Teddy, was still inside.

Meghan said: “Luckily, two of the dogs had got out into the back garden.

“We opened the patio door and the back door and again there was billowing smoke.

“We did our best to safely as we could try and get in the house because there was one more dog still inside.

“We wrapped wet jumpers around our faces.

“My mum was trying to crawl under the smoke because we could hear him insde but unfortunately when they found him, he was already gone.

“He wasn’t very old, he was about 16- or 17 months.

“He was a Christmas present for the two girls last year.”

The family spent that night with Joanne’s sister before moving into the other property.

Meghan said: “The house they were due to move into in February is empty so they’ve been allowed to move into straight away. “They all stayed at my mum's sister's house just after with the chaos and the shock,

“They're going up to the new house. to try and organise through everything and start rebuilding.”

The fire service were able to say in which room the blaze started but investigations are ongoing to establish the cause.

The family had got together around 10am at the house to start celebrating Christmas together.

They went to the other house to pick up some larger gifts for the two girls and had been away for about 20 minutes.

To support the fundraising, go to www.justgiving.com and search for Steam Mills Christmas fire.