A FAMILY left homeless after a freezer fire have thanked the community for generous donations after smoke and fire destroyed their belongings.

Firefighters were called to the home in Middlefield Road, Mistley, on May 4 after sparks had been seen coming from the fridge/freezer.

The electrical fault caused a fire, which spread to a bin and the kitchen cupboards.

The whole house was full of smoke, damaging clothes and possessions.

Suzanne Strunkey, her husband Wayne, and five children were left homeless.

She said: “The kitchen suffered fire damage and the rest of the house has been left smoke damaged so the house is not habitable.

“We were put in touch with the Red Cross to provide immediate welfare support and Tendring Council rehoused us into sheltered accommodation at Honeycroft.

“We want to say a big thank you to the residents at Honeycroft, as well for being so kind and caring to us.

“We lost everything in our house fire, so only had the clothes we were wearing - we have to replace everything.”

The Strunkey family has been staggered by the support they have had from the community since the fire.

Suzanne added: “We are so overwhelmed by how kind and supportive everyone has been to us, helping us, donating clothes to us, donating to the gift page kindly set up for us by Shell.

“We truly appreciate everything.

“We would like to say a very big thank you to everyone, its so nice to see how our friends, family and people in are community have put together for us in our time our need.”

A 24-hour fishing match was held at the weekend to raise money for the family.

“We want to thank Nicola, Dan, Sam and Liselle, Mistley Rugby Club, Harwich Rugby Club, Valleys fishing syndicate for letting us hold the match, carp reserves fishing syndicate, the Last Yard Tackle Company and Lakeland Baits.

“We also want to mention DT bait development, Aaron Perera from Art and Sole Tattoo Studio, Dave, from Winsome Waters France, bigcarpfishinfrance.com and Kevan Martin, from Colchester Bait and Tackle.”

There are hopes for two more fundraising fishing matches to be organised for the family.

Nigel Brown, Tendring Council’s communications manager, said there had been a large amount of work to carry out following the fire but everything possible is being done to get the family back into their home as quickly as possible.

“The first fix electrics have been completed, most of the redecoration, and we have nearly finished the kitchen,” he added.

“New windows and a door have been put in and we will be doing the flooring next.

“We would hope that it will all be completed by the beginning of July.”