A FAMILY has been left devastated after children’s Christmas presents were destroyed in a blaze.

A box of presents for two-year-old Kieren and three-year-old Lewis Delaney burst into flames at the family home in Radnor Close, Queensferry yesterday.

The box of gifts, worth about £80, were on top of an electric cooker which was accidentally switched on.

Dad, Adam Delaney, 27, said: “Unfortunately the cooker switch at the wall had been left on. Then I think maybe one of the kids knocked the dial on the cooker and it
must have turned on.”

Adam, his partner Sarah Condron, 26, and the two children, were in the lounge when they smelt smoke just before 4pm.

Adam said: “I opened the kitchen door and there was just one big flame coming from the cooker – it was quite high.

“My first thought was to get the children out of the house and they went to their nan’s.

“My father-in-law actually came in and put the fire out with water.”

Adam said there was thick black smoke throughout the home.

Firefighters from Buckley and Deeside rushed to the scene just after 4pm but the blaze was out on their arrival.

“They gave fire safety advice and checked things over,” said Adam.

“We’re gutted, not only about the children’s presents but also because we don’t have a cooker now.”

Adam said the presents had been bought for the children by his sister Emma Delaney who is living in Ireland.

They included Igglepiggle toys from ‘In The Night Garden’ and also gifts of clothes for Adam himself.

Luckily other presents for the children from Adam and Sarah were not damaged in the fire.

Sarah, who is pregnant, said: “When Adam said there was a fire I didn’t believe him at first.

“But when I heard the alarm going off I made sure the children were out of the house.

“I could see thick black smoke and could see the flames reflecting in the window of the kitchen.”

A spokeswoman from North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: “A quantity of paper was left on an electric hob but the fire was out on arrival.”