A woman who returned from holiday to find her house had been burned to cinders has spoken of her astonishment on social media.
Hilary Kench admitted “this is never what she intended” to use her TikTok account for as she shared footage of her two-storey property that had been obliterated by an unexpected fire. With nothing left of the roof and windows all boarded up, she began: “I had a pretty significant house fire while I was in France and I got a phone call to say my house was burning down.”
Hilary confessed she didn’t realise the damage would turn out to be of such an extent upon the hearing the news, and she is now coming to terms with the work that lies ahead. “I’m a homeowner and insured – the fire was accidental and not caused by anything electrical,” she continued.
With blackened rubble piling up outside, Hilary reported that a forensic team had been in to assess the situation, confirming the “accidental” nature of the blaze and that she had “done nothing wrong”. She added: “Nobody has died and all the animals got out.”
The majority of the contents of Hilary’s kitchen were covered in a layer of soot. Heading into the living room, Hilary noted the irony that her fire wood appeared to be one of her very few possessions remaining fully intact.
“The upstairs is much worse because the flames went from the outside and in through the top windows,” Hilary said before informing her followers of the few items that had somehow escaped damage. “There’s some flowers on the window sill and just really odd stuff – lots of photographs and things behind glass,” she added.
Hilary closed her clip, which has been viewed more than 100,000 times: “I’ve got a couple of days now to sort my belongings before the scaffolding goes up and we get cracking.”
Writing in response, one TikTok user expressed: “How ironic that the fire wood is untouched. Good luck with the clear up.” To which Hilary declared: “It is utterly bonkers what wasn’t touched.”
A second person advised: “Start searching for photos and videos from inside the home. You need to start listing every tiny little thing in the house! Every pen, every cushion, every knife and fork… with as much description of them as possible.”
A third individual concurred, recommending: “Make sure you make a note of every single thing that you have and if you have anything that you can’t find online, look for on eBay and what it would actually cost to replace. Insurance are a joke when it comes to trying to pay you less. I had a lot of Lego collectibles that they tried to give me just shy of £100 for and the actual cost was close to £2k.”
Whilst a fourth TikTok user sympathised: “You poor woman, do you know if the house is salvageable or will it have to be demolished and rebuilt? Take comfort in the fact nobody was hurt. Possessions can be replaced.” Hilary revealed: “Not sure yet as structural engineers not yet been in.”