A murder investigation has been launched after a house fire in Grangetown near Middlesbrough killed a seven-year-old girl and her 34-year-old aunt. The blaze tore through a property on Birchington Avenue at 5.23am on Wednesday (August 26).
The victims have been named locally as Valentina Foster and Natalie McDonald. A 48-year-old woman remains in a critical condition in hospital, while three others suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening. Cleveland Police launched the murder investigation, and two men have been arrested.
Police keep open mind on link to A66 crash
Police would not rule out a link between the blaze at the end-of-terrace property and the crash on the A66 South Bank on Saturday morning, which claimed the lives of two police officers and five young men. Superintendent Emily Harrison said: "We continue to work to establish the circumstances of exactly what has happened, but we are keeping an open mind and cannot rule out any links to wider organised crime at this time."
Tributes have been paid to Valentina and Natalie following the blaze. Natalie's mother, Lisa Kirton, described her daughter as "a beautiful, bubbly person who everyone knew". She said: "She had a heart of gold who would give anyone anything. She left behind a daughter with no parents."
Family tributes and neighbour accounts
Ms Kirton said: "We live opposite and were woken at 5am and there were people getting dragged out of fires when we were there at the scene. We were waiting for Natalie to come out and after about three hours police told us she had died." Valentina was the daughter of McDonald's husband's brother. Ms Kirton said she was "one of the family", adding: "She had been staying at the house for the school summer holidays. She was a very cute girl and was Natalie's niece."
Heartfelt tributes to the victims have appeared online. One read: "Life is so cruel my beautiful granddaughter Valentina. Your dad will be waiting for you." Another stated: "Aw my Valentina. Why you? You're just a baby."
A 20-year-old neighbour described running up and down the street, shouting to raise the alarm, and how local residents tried to rescue the occupants. Ellie, who declined to give her surname, said: "The entire house was scorching. I couldn't get near the front of the house, it was that hot." She described holding the hand of a crying woman who had jumped from an upstairs window, staying with her until paramedics arrived. Two men, aged 23 and 31, remain in police custody after they were arrested on suspicion of murder.
Inquests open for A66 victims
Meanwhile, inquests for the two police officers and five young men who died in the head-on collision on the A66 opened today at Teesside Magistrates' Court. In the morning, the Teesside Coroner opened inquests into the deaths of PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38. The officers were travelling in a marked police car which was hit head-on by a VW Passat which was evading police.
In the afternoon, inquests opened into the deaths of Cole Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak – who were in the Passat and were pronounced dead at the scene at South Bank. Officers have arrested 17 people following the crash, charging two of them and bailing the others, as part of investigations into alleged organised crime. The Passat had been pursued by police following an earlier incident in which a house in the Acklam area of Middlesbrough, linked to Worthy, was rammed by a vehicle.
The pursuit was aborted when the Passat went the wrong way down the A66. Police have previously said the five young men in the Passat may have had links to "serious and organised criminal activity" and four of them have previous convictions. PC Blades and PC Clough were not involved in the original pursuit but had been called to the area to assist with the search for the Passat. An online appeal to raise money for the officers' families passed £1 million on Wednesday.
