Community rallies to rescue family’s Christmas after blaze

The spirit of Christmas is alive and well after a community rallied around a Cork family who lost everything in a devastating house fire the week before the big day. A GoFundMe page has raised nearly €13,000 in just 15 hours to help them rebuild their lives and replace everything, including the children’s destroyed Christmas presents.

Una and Colin Cronin fled the house in Weston View, Carrigaline, Co Cork, with their three young children after a fusebox may have sparked the blaze on Monday evening. Christmas decorations in the hallway were burning as they ran through the back door, the children without shoes and two dressed only in pyjamas.