A family with an amazing story were denied the chance to tell their tale.
A mother and her children, from Burnside Road, Saffron Lane, were woken in the early hours of Thursday morning after their home became “heavily involved in fire”.
It took four firefighters in breathing gear to get the family to safety and put the blaze out.
They managed to escape the burning house, but their pets – a dog, parrot and gerbil – were trapped inside.
A 16-year-old member of the family was distraught to learn her puppy was still roaming around the family home, while flames engulfed every room, and began calling for the young pooch.
As she stood in the street watching her home burn, he appeared in a first floor bedroom window. The youngster whistled and the terrified pup hurled himself out of the open window, landing in her arms.
The parrot and gerbil were also rescued. Phew.
This is amazing story – remarkably no one was hurt – and the family were more than happy to speak to me, especially the daughter, who begged her mum to be in the paper with her puppy.
So the day after the fire I visited the street.
However, the opportunity to get something positive from an incredibly bad situation was ruined by the family’s social worker – who realised that the story would appear in the Mercury and feature a family he was supposed to be ‘looking after’.
As I tried to speak to the family, and others in the street, he followed me everywhere I went and every time I opened my mouth to speak – even to neighbours – he would pipe up, ‘advising’ people not to talk to me.
The fact that a family in his care could have died because their home was decimated by fire was obviously too much for him – and the last thing he wanted was to have it pubicized in the paper.
I don’t know what he said to the mum as he took her to one side and whispered in her ear, but he managed to convince her that a lovely story about a family saving their much-loved pets against all the odds was a horrific idea.
He wouldn’t let me pass my phone number to the family either, snatching the card from my hand as I passed it over.
The same thing happened with the neighbours, and soon no one wanted to know me – with the exception of the 16-year-old daughter, who was still uber-keen to get in the paper.
I was only there to offer the family the chance to tell their story, and like always if somebody doesn’t want to say anything they are left alone.
The fact that they were really keen at the beginning, and only changed their minds after being taken to one side, made it a very frustrating situation. Not only that, but he simply does not have the right to interfere.
It could be argued that he’s going against the European Convention on Human Rights - article 10: The Freedom of Expression:
“Everyone has the right of freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without inference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
But that’s for the knowledgeable people in fancy wigs to say, not me.
