The mother of a nine-year-old girl killed instantly in a freak wall collapse has told an inquest she screamed "where's my baby" as she searched for her daughter in the rubble.
Carol Hammacott, 39, was walking daughter Stephanie along the footpath to school in Plymouth, south-west England, last year when a gas explosion caused her neighbour's terrace house to cave in, bringing a wall down on top of the girl.
Authorities later discovered the blast was caused by a leaking gas pipe below the house which had combusted after the 85-year-old tenant Ronald Cloke turned his central heating on.
A tearful Mrs Hammacott yesterday told an inquest how she was disorientated following the blast before realising to her horror that she could not see Stephanie.
"My baby was somewhere in the rubble," she was quoted as saying in British newspapers.
"I started shouting her name. I was bellowing for her. The house was in flames and there were flames at my feet.
"People were telling me to move away because of the fire. I was telling them there is no way I was moving because my baby was in there."
Mrs Hammacott found Stephanie trapped beneath the debris and only managed to drag her free with the help of a neighbour.
She recalled how she desperately tried to stamp out the flames on Stephanie's body before telling her "be your stubborn self and fight".
The tragedy had unfolded just moments after the mother and daughter had left their own house about 50m down the road and headed for Stephanie's breakfast club.
Mrs Hammacott recalled how the pair had just kissed goodbye to Stephanie's two sisters, 11-year-old Tonie-Marie and 15-year-old Terri-Anne, both of whom came running outside when they heard the house collapsing.
The grieving mother said her daughter had a "heart of gold" and was a "good child".
"The only good thing is that Stephanie is living in heaven while I am still here and I don't know why I am," she said.
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