AN ESTATE agent is working with a grief-stricken family to help them find a new home following a house fire which cost a mother and son their lives.

On Tuesday, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed how Brian Stoddard had been forced to move his family into an Accrington homeless hostel after an offer from Eaves Brook Housing Association to provide them with a new home fell through.

In May, Brian's wife Gaynor and his four-year-old son Brandon died after becoming trapped in a house fire at their home in Lonsdale Street, Accrington. Despite being rescued, both mother and son died.

Brian decided not to ask to move back into the house and through Hyndburn Council was offered a house in a new estate being built by Eaves Brook off Charter Street.

However, when the family -- Brian, daughters Lyndsay, 19, Melanie, 15 and sons Aaron, 11, and Down's syndrome sufferer Dean, nine -- turned up to collect the keys to the new house, they were told they were not getting a house because they had not provided references. Brian maintains he was never asked for references. He was left with no choice but to move into the homeless hostel as his other daughter, Lisa, 17, who they had been living with, had moved into a smaller flat.

Now Paul Brown, of Century 21 Estate Agents, which rents out a string of properties throughout Accrington, says he will be working with the family to see if they could help.

He said: "We read the paper and thought that there must be something we could do to help the family.

"We have various properties throughout Accrington which, if suitable for the family, we would be more than happy to rent to them.

"They have been through enough and we hope to help them."

Speaking from the Burnley Road hostel which has become the Stoddard's makeshift home, Brian said: "We are very grateful and hope that it leads to us getting somewhere nice for us to live."