Cwmbran house with 15ft dinosaur in garden damaged by fire

The family of a man who bought a 15ft tall dinosaur for their garden have said they are in shock to find they do not have insurance after their house was badly damaged in a fire.

Insurance payments stopped when Jerry Adams' bank account was closed shortly after he died at the end of August.

Mr Adams, from Cwmbran, made headlines earlier this year when he bought the model dinosaur for his garden.

The community is rallying round to help the family try and rebuild their home.

Mr Adams' widow Lesley, his daughter Becky and her partner John and their three children, Michael, 14, Thomas, 10, and nine-year-old Dylan, were all in the house when the fire broke out on Sunday morning.

The family was alerted to the fire by Thomas, who smelt smoke coming into his bedroom.

Becky, said: "I was having a lie-in and John ran in and was saying 'get out, get out, the house is on fire'.

"I grabbed my kids and my mum grabbed a picture of my dad. I wanted to cry.

"So we all ran outside, the fire brigade got in and they just started ripping walls down, they brought the hoses up and just started soaking everything.

"Honestly, I don't care. My kids are alive. I don't care if they've got nothing for Christmas. I've got a roof over my head and they're safe."

The house suffered damage in the fire

The family said the fire also revealed the house had unsafe plumbing and electrics, which needed fixing.

Samantha Adams, Becky's sister, added: "We started asking about insurance but it's not something you think of, especially after only losing your dad three months ago, everything was in his name.

"We rang the bank and they said because his account was closed, all the direct debits were cancelled.

"But we've said we were meant to have a list of what those direct debits were so we could re-set them up."

The family said they do not know how much it will cost but they are now determined to rebuild the house.

Becky (far left) with her sisters Tamar, Samantha and Abbi, and Alun the dinosaur

Insurance payments stopped when Mr Adams' bank account was closed

Samantha said she believed the community had helped so much because of her father's memory.

"I'll never leave a legacy like my dad," she said.

"This just proves that people care, people from the community, people I don't even know have come forward and offered their help, offered their support.

"My dad was a good guy, he brought Alun the dinosaur here, he's been raising money for different charities.

"It just shows how much of an impact he had."

An online fundraising page has also been started to help the family.

Up close and personal with Alun