‘I saw it and I just froze. I’ve lost everything’

When Tia Henderson heard the fire alarm go off, she thought it was one of her neighbours’ burning their toast again.

But it wasn’t.

Moments later, she stood frozen in panic as she watched her whole living room – her whole life – go up in flames around her.

The 21-year-old from Oldham was left with nothing but the clothes on her back after a fire broke out in her flat in Chadderton.

The former youth mayor for Oldham said her living room went up in flames ‘within minutes’ after a mishap with a candle. 

The blaze has left Tia’s apartment uninhabitable and all of her belongings destroyed.

Her recently adopted cat, Treasure, tragically passed away during the incident. 

Tia has been elft ‘distraught’ and is now sofa surfing with friends while the council organises emergency accommodation for her. 

And it’s not the first time the young ambassador, who became Oldham’s first care leaver to represent young people in council, has had to leave her home.

In 2022, Tia faced homelessness after a serious rat infestation rendered her previous flat unlivable. 

The fire is thought to have started on Monday (August 12) after she lit a candle in her living room.

Tia believes her curtains caught fire and the flame then spread to her furniture. 

Tia said: “I feel so guilty.  It’s something that you do every day, lighting a candle.

"You see stuff like this all the time on social media.

"I just never thought it could be me in this position.”

She described how she’d walked back into her living room after hearing a fire alarm going off ‘so quietly’ she thought it was coming from the neighbours. 

“When I walked back into my living room, I realized that my sofa was on fire. My curtains were on fire,” Tia said.

“I absolutely panicked. I saw it and I just froze. 

“I went running into the kitchen to get water.

"But then I wasn’t sure if there might have been an electrical fault rather than the candle.

"And I thought if it’s electrical, I don’t want to throw water on it.

“I was just panicking, thinking of anything to do to lessen the fire.

"But within three minutes of me walking in the room the whole place was in flames.” 

The former therapeutic support worker managed to save herself, her dog and her cat Talia.

But her second cat, Treasure, became trapped in the flat and sadly passed away. 

“I opened the window for my cats to get out. I managed to push one outside.

"I thought I’d pushed both outside, but it turns out that one of them was still in the house. 

“I ran outside with just the clothes I had on.

"I had a tracksuit on, just my socks, no shoes, and then I had the dog with me.

"The dog didn’t even have a lead on.

"The cat was running around the street.

"The dog was running around the street, and I was on the phone to fire [services], and it just seemed like forever for them to get there.” 

When they arrived, Tia said firefighters ‘were great’ and entered the flat ‘straight away’ to rescue her cat.

But despite performing CPR and supplying oxygen for several minutes, it was too late for Tia’s pet. 

“I’ve lost my little baby. She was a little rescue. I just feel like I let her down. She must have been so scared in that situation, being trapped in there.” 

As well as her beloved pet, Tia has lost her home and all of her belongings including her clothes to smoke and fire damage.

The fire came just days before she was due to attend a number of job interviews after she recently left her job at a homeless shelter. 

Tia said: “The whole living room is burnt. There’s part of the ceiling falling down.

"Part of the plaster board was on fire. It’s just horrific. 

“The smoke damage is horrendous. Nothing is salvageable. 

“I managed to go in this afternoon, and I’ve got probably three dresses that I’m going to use for my job interviews next week.

"I’m going to put them through the wash and hope that the smoke comes out. But fire [services] told me not to take anything because the damage is so bad.”

She added: “The clothes I’m wearing now, they’re covered in soot and smoke, and that’s literally all I’ve got.” 

Because of the extensive damage, it could be months before Tia can move back into her home.

She says the council and her housing association are finding her somewhere to live – but she’ll have to find somewhere for her pets to stay in the meantime. 

But Tia says there is one silver lining to her ordeal: the Oldham community that has banded together to help her. 

A friend has set up a crowdfunding campaign that has already raised £750 to help Tia get back on her feet and buy food and clothes. 

And Tia said: “I’ve got hundreds of messages of people trying to offer support.

"I’ve had people offering for me to stay on their sofa with the dog.

"There’s people offering me their sofas, their pots and pans, their clothes, people offering to make me meals.

"It’s quite overwhelming the help people are willing to offer.

“It’s such a lovely thing because there’s been so much tension in the community from lots of different people recently.

"But actually, when it comes to it, you know, people do really stick their neck out for each other, which I appreciate massively. It’s such a nice community to be a part of.” 

Council leader Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council, said she was ‘devastated’ to hear what had happened to Tia.

Shah said: “Our teams are working with Tia to help and support her as much as we can.

"Over the years she has been outstanding ambassador for the town and hopefully we can help her get things back to normal.”

The Greater Manchester Fire Service warns that candles in the home can be ‘dangerous’.

They suggest never leaving them unattended and keeping candles away from flammable objects. 

They added “If there is a fire in your home – get out, stay out and call 999 – don’t try to tackle the fire yourself, and never go back into a burning building.”

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