A WOMAN whose home was devastated by fire last week has been amazed by the response from her local community.

An online appeal for anyone who could help Lesley Wyatt put her home back together has seen dozens of Good Samaritans helping out with everything from providing food and cleaning products to offering to help decorate and plaster the smoke damaged walls.

Last Wednesday evening (January 21) a fire broke out in Lesley's home on Coldbrook Road, East , caused by an electric heater. Although the fire itself was relatively small and easily dealt with by the fire service, the house was damaged beyond recognition by smoke.

Every room in the house except for an upstairs bedroom was completely blackened, ceilings and walls were damaged and Lesley lost nearly all of her belongings including some of her parents old furniture - items of great sentimental value.

Without house insurance to cover the cost of putting the home she has lived in for 22 years back together, Lesley and her family were facing a monumental task.

Online appeals on Lesley's behalf were made in the Barry Freebies Only and the Spotted Penarth Barry Sully Dinas Facebook groups and shortly afterwards Grandmother-of-three Lesley was receiving dozens of offers from complete strangers.

Since the appeal she has had regular callers to the house offering to help out. She has received donations of food, cleaning products and even a kettle from someone offering their assistance. People have offered to do her washing, remove bags of rubbish and one man even turned up with a jet wash to clean the outside of her home.

When work can eventually begin on putting ceilings back up, plastering the walls and decorating, Lesley already has a string of people who have offered to help.

Lesley, 49, said: "When I saw the inside of my house, I just felt numb. I thought there might be little bit of black but I wasn't expecting it to look like this."

Friend Katrina Swankie, who is an admin on the Barry Freebies group, was amazed by the response she got after her appeal for help.

"It shows there is a community spirit here," she said. "It's nice to see there are still a lot of lovely people in Barry."

Lesley Wyatt said she wanted to thank everyone who has offered to help, her friends and family members and particularly her friend Peter Harrott for his contributions.

Lesley and her family still need all the help they can get. If you think you can help out, you can get in touch with her through the Facebook groups mentioned or pass your details on to the Barry & District News and we will forward your details.