Four children died when fire ripped through their home as their anguished mother screamed ‘How many of my babies are dead?’
Detectives yesterday started a major investigation into the tragedy after friends of the mother said she had received threats that her house would be ‘torched’.
Firemen managed to force their way into Rachael Henson’s semi-detached home through an upstairs window and carry two of her children outside, but they were unable to save any of them.
Every mother's worst nightmare: Rachael Henson with baby Apollonia, who was two when she died in the fire
Yesterday, as the cause of the fire was investigated, a small community was in deep shock at the horror which claimed the lives of nine-year-old Tommy, Alisha, six, Rocco, four, and Apollonia, two.
Tony Nulty, the grandfather of two of the children, said: ‘I just can’t believe it. They were beautiful little children.’
Their 44-year-old mother, who runs a popular hairdresser’s shop in the historic Derbyshire market town of Ashbourne, was treated for smoke inhalation and is understood to be under sedation.
She has not been told that all four of her children are dead.
The blaze swept through the family’s house in the picturesque village of Hulland Ward at 11.30pm on Monday.
