So this is Christmas... and what have you done...

Five children die in fire while father Christmas shopping

A sad story, cannot imagine he'll ever get over it or be able to forgive himself...

Tragic.
Don't ever leave such young kids to fend for themselves in their own home...for even an hour.

Or even a minute
So sad

My two really do some of the dumbest dumbest things...

Fortunately there's always an adult around we can ask to keep an eye on things.

But didn't most of us above a certain age walk home from school alone, take buses to the next town and all sorts of other "dangerous" activities? I can remember being aged 6 (1986), walking 5 minutes to home after school, letting myself in the house and sticking Heinz beans and sausages in the microwave before parents were home at 5pm.

The eldest kid in that incident was 13. Leaving a teenager to fend for themselves isn't too unreasonable. Now, the bit about the teenager and other older kids also taking care of a 2 year old baby is a bit off. I don't think I would have ever been trusted with my sister who is 10 years younger than me.

If the 13 year old couldn't make it out of the house fire, what are the chances an adult could have done if they were upstairs or something? Sounds like no alarm system must have been in place (or maybe there's a Derby Mick Philpott element to the whole thing.....)

Their grandfather worked for the local fire service, where was mummy??

I think the problem was the fire originated at the bottom of the stairs... the only way out... the children were playing together in one of the bedrooms upstairs... kids often wear headphones when playing on their pc etc... or they could have been playing music... so they may not have know anything about it until it was too late... dodgy Xmas lights ???