This is the mother of two who died in a Boxing Day house fire along with her children – as her police officer husband remains in hospital after escaping.
Fionnghuala Shearman, known to friends as Nu, perished alongside daughter Eve, seven, and son Ohner, four, as flames swept through their home on Brimscombe Hill, near Stroud.
The 38-year-old’s husband, Tom, is a serving Gloucestershire police officer and escaped the inferno. The pair had been married for around a decade.
A friend of the Shearman family today described what happened as ‘absolutely shocking’.
‘We are all shellshocked to be honest with you,’ she told the Mail. ‘We don’t know what happened [to cause the fire].’
Another friend of the family, living in the Cotswold community of Chipping Campden, said the tragedy was ‘dreadful’.
Emergency services were called to the ‘well-established’ fire at the home at about 3am.
Gloucestershire Constabulary said Mr Shearman attempted to rescue his wife and two children but was beaten back by the severity of the flames.
In an update today, Detective Superintendent Ian Fletcher said the couple had been woken by the fire and tried to reach their children in the rear bedroom.
‘They have been unable to get to the back bedroom due to the voracity of the fire,’ he said.
‘The father has smashed his way out of the house through a bathroom window in order to try to access the children’s bedroom via the outside.
‘He has been unable to enter the property via that bedroom window.’
DS Fletcher said Mr Shearman tried to get back into the property to rescue his wife and children but was unable to do so.
The officer continued: ‘He has then tried to re-enter the property through the bathroom window, by which stage the fire has taken hold in the bathroom and he’s unable to get back into the upstairs bedrooms.
‘He has subsequently gone downstairs and tried to force entry via the front and the back door but has been unable to get back inside to the property.
‘It is at this point our colleagues from emergency services have attended and have started managing and dealing with that fire.’
DS Fletcher said the fire was believed to have started on the ground floor and investigations were ongoing to establish the cause, but it was not being treated as suspicious.
Mrs Shearman was born in Cheltenham and ran a successful business making canvas and leather bags.
But earlier this month she announced the firm, Hide and Hammer, would be closing its workshop for the foreseeable future.
She regularly posted photographs of her family on social media, and was a keen runner alongside her husband.
The extent of the fire at the family home has caused the roof of the mid-terrace Cotswold stone cottage to fall in and the ceilings and stairs have collapsed.
A body of a woman in her 40s has been recovered from the house, while the body of a child has been located at the scene.
DS Fletcher said work was underway to recover the body of the second child but the unstable nature of the property meant this would take time.
Chloe Turner, who represents Minchinhampton on Stroud District Council for the Green Party, said: ‘If anyone in the community has information that may assist in the investigation, or needs any support as a result of the incident, please call 101 or let the on-site police know, and they will direct you to the appropriate agency.
‘The emergency services and councils are working closely together, but if you have any problems, please let me know.
‘My thoughts are very much with everyone impacted by this tragic incident.’
