The landlord of the Spalding property in which three people died in a fire has spoken publicly about the tragedy for the first time.
Tricia Pite has been consumed with sorrow since the May 1 blaze which killed tenants Jaroslaw Lazarewicz (53), Sylwester Grabzewski (42) and Marian Mariusz Laczynski (38).
She said: “They were decent people and we all got on.
“I felt like their mother.”
Six foreign nationals lived at Leathercote House in Tower Lane. Two were away on holiday at the time of the incident and one other was not at the property.
Mrs Pite said she looked upon her tenants as “acquaintances” and would use the house as her office two or three times a week.
She said: “They used to drink a lot so I would go there to keep a check on them.
“Every time they would hide their can behind their back and pull a bit of a face – they knew I didn’t like it.”
All three men often spent days at home drinking and singing. One had not paid rent for some time.
Mrs Pite said: “I could have chucked him out but putting people on the street isn’t going to help them.
“I found jobs for him to do for me like painting and he did my garden at home, just to keep him off the drink.
“I don’t consider myself the average landlord – I do care.”
Mrs Pite had been at the house just a few hours before the ferocious blaze broke out just after midnight.
She says she has met the families of the deceased since the tragedy, to talk about their grief and pass on the few personal possessions which remained.
“It’s been a very emotional and sad time,” she said. “I can’t even tell you how I have got through it.
“This is people’s lives.”
The £280,000 four-bedroom detached house was Mrs Pite’s marital home and, at the time of the blaze, she had had it on the market for 18 months. The legal owner is her ex-husband David and she said it was a shock to discover after the fire that it was uninsured.
A Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue report on the fire has been passed to the coroner ahead of inquests for the three men, which are not expected to take place before September.
The cause of the fire has not yet been made public, but Mrs Pite described it as “a tragic accident”.
She added: “It’s been a frustrating time because I haven’t been able to get the answers I would have liked, but gradually I’ve been able to piece things together.
“I would like closure to it and I can’t have that until the inquests.
“I’ve got a building that I can’t do anything about.
“At the end of the day it was the marital home and it’s got to stay as a pile of rubble.”
Mrs Pite, who manages two other properties under her company Winsome Properties, says she has read some incorrect assumptions about her and the incident on internet forums.
She said: “As a landlord, you hold yourself responsible. I was knocked off my feet.
“But I’ve been told I’m not to blame in any way.”
