A FAMILY of five today vowed never to return home after a fire at their council house.

Nicola and Geoffrey Pickup say they have suffered a catalogue of problems with Rossendale Council since the blaze last month.

The couple and their children, Blake, four months, Emma, 18 months, and David, seven, had lived in the house on Goodshaw Avenue, Goodshaw, for six years until a fire destroyed the ground floor last month.

It started when a gust of wind blew flames from a boiler on to towels in a linen cupboard, which had been built around the boiler.

Now Rossendale Council has ordered an 'immediate and urgent' investigation and chairman of housing Coun Paulinus Barnes, said: "We will also be making sure that other properties with this sort of heating do not have clothes storage areas in the same cupboards as these boilers."

Nicola, 25, said after the fire the council offered them accommodation in a hostel, so they arranged to rent a house in Laburnum Cottages, Crawshawbooth.

Nicola said: "The council said they were sending workmen in to repair the property, but we did not want that yet because we had not settled with the insurers. "The next thing, we found workmen were in the house and all our property had been moved before the insurance had been sorted.

"We had asked for the central heating system to be replaced because I was frightened that a fire could start again, but the council said we would have to pay if we wanted it changed.

"They also hinted that the fire could have been our fault, but gas workers said the cupboard should never have been built around the boiler and it was against regulations."

Coun Barnes admitted council staff had begun work earlier than had been agreed with the family and said: "This was an error on our part for which we have apologised to the family.

"We are, however, anxious to get this house back into a habitable state as quickly as possible."

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