Stafford fire: Candlelight vigil planned tonight to remember young victims
Around £27,000 has been raised through donations for the family by a community united in grief
A vigil will be held tonight in memory of four young children who died in a house fire in Stafford.
Riley Holt, aged eight, Keegan Unitt, six, Tilly Rose Unitt, four, and Olly Unitt, three, died in the blaze on Sycamore Lane in the Highfields areas of the town.
Their mother Natalie Unitt, 24, and her partner Chris Moulton, 28, escaped with a two-year-old boy and remain in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
A vigil is planned when candles will be lit by people as they walk from the Oxleathers pub to the scene of the tragedy.
Flowers and other tributes will be laid.
Debbie Howe, landlady at The Oxleathers pub in Stafford, originally had the idea for the vigil as something small for the family, a few of the pub regulars, and members of the church.
But she said it grew considerably after the news was shared on social media.
She said: "We just thought it would be a few people from the church going, with a few regulars from the pub. But then people from town got in touch, and people out of town, and it turned into something quite big.
"I'm just emotional and shocked really. I just thought if I could do something to help, then I would."
It comes as a online fundraising page set up for the family smashed its £25,000 target in less than 48 hours.
Almost £27,000 has now been raised by well-wishers on the Just Giving page.
An investigation is continuing into the cause of the blaze, which started in the early hours of Tuesday.
The fundraising page was started on Tuesday morning by another parent at Castlechurch Primary School, and residents set up a Facebook page which has also received hundreds of offers of support and donations of clothing, bedding, furniture and more.
While McDonald’s, Domino’s Pizza and Lidl all donated food to the emergency service workers who remained at the scene investigating the blaze yesterday.
Players and supporters paid tribute at Stafford Rangers, with a minute's silence held before the Staffordshire Senior Cup Quarter Final against Wolverhampton Casuals at Marston Road on Tuesday night.
In emotional tributes released on Tuesday, teachers described the children as “bright, happy, loving and lively”.
And the fire was brought up at Prime Minister's Questions by Conservative Jack Brereton, who represents nearby Stoke on-Trent South.
Mr Lidington, standing in for Theresa May who was in Northern Ireland, said: "I don't believe there is any member of this House whose reaction to that ghastly news yesterday was not horror, and the most deeply felt sympathy with the family and the friends of the children and parents involved.
"Any of us that are thinking through what that family has had to live through, and must face living through, it strikes one it must be almost unendurable."
