Fire-hit family still living in hotel (From The Oxford Times)

Fire-hit family still living in hotel

10:30am Wednesday 13th June 2012 in Didcot

A YOUNG mother and her two children are still in a hotel more than two months after losing their home in a fire in Didcot.

Dozens of people were forced to flee a block of flats in Venners Water on the Ladygrove estate when fire broke out during the early hours of Good Friday, April 6.

The blaze started in a top-floor flat and left two people needing hospital treatment. About 40 people from 11 families lived in the block and they all needed to be rehoused.

Six families chose to stay with relatives, while five families were found emergency accommodation at the Premier Inn and Apple Cart restaurant at the Milton interchange.

But, more than two months later, Kelly Jones, 21, and daughters, Skye, three, and Brooke, one, are still staying in one room at the hotel.

Discussions have taken place with Home Group housing association, which owns the block of flats.

Miss Jones, whose flat was water-damaged, said: “I feel completely isolated.

“It’s very difficult to manage with two small children in one room with an ensuite bathroom.

“The children’s meal and bed times have been totally disrupted.”

Miss Jones said she had to get a taxi into Didcot to take her eldest daughter to nursery because she could not drive, although the housing association paid for the fare.

Home Group director of customer services Scott Black said: “Customers have been found alternative homes.

“One customer declined an initial property which was offered to her. She has now been offered a second.”

Miss Jones said she had turned down the offer of a house in Thame because it was too far from friends and family.