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 of around ten years, Tom, is a serving Gloucestershire police officer and escaped the inferno. He was taken to hospital but has since been discharged. 

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.

Local vicar Rev Peter Francis, whose church lies just up the hill from the fire, said: ‘I think people have been shocked and devastated by this, they really feel for the family.

‘We’ve had a number of people who have gathered in the church to grieve, people have said prayers.

‘As a church, we are open every day and it has been a place where people have been able to come and grieve together.

‘I think it’s been really important that people haven’t been left on their own.’

A fundraising page has already seen tens of thousands of pounds donated by the public to support Mr Shearman and his family.

One of the organisers wrote: ‘This Gofundme has been created to support Tom following a devastating house fire at his home in Brimscombe, in the early hours of Boxing Day.

‘Tom is now facing an unimaginable period of grief alongside the very real and immediate practical reality of having nothing left.

‘This fund has been set up to help support them with the practical needs he’s facing now and in the months ahead – including emergency accommodation, clothing and essentials, time away from work and the many unexpected costs that arise during a period like this.’

It is available at https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-rebuild-after-an-unimaginable-loss?cdn-cache=0 

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Gloucestershire Police Federation added: ‘This is an unimaginable tragedy to have struck a colleague and their family and our hearts are broken for them.

‘It is impossible for us all to properly comprehend and come to terms with what has happened.

‘The Federation are offering as much support as is possible to our colleague at this deeply saddening time. We are also supporting devastated colleagues and teammates of the officer concerned.

‘We know the whole police family across the UK – indeed the whole of the UK – will be offering their condolences. And we thank those who have already passed on their thoughts and support.’