A DRUMCHAPEL family wants to start afresh after the home which holds all the memories of their dead son went up in flames.

The Bowers family had lived in one of the second floor flats at 21 Cloan Avenue for 26 years when it was engulfed in a devastating fire on July 2.

Joe, wife Jackie and their six-year-old grandson Robert fled, alongside 17 neighbours, with just the clothes on their backs when a fire broke out at 6.45pm.

All 20 residents of the block of six flats were safely evacuated by Scottish Fire and Rescue, but the emotional scars will take much longer to heal, according to the Bowers family.

“It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” Joe told the Post this week. “When I was working through the stuff there [in the flat] it was very difficult. A pal arranged for me to go in there to see what I could get and I even had to ask him to leave. He gave me five minutes to look about and it was terrible.” Joe, 58, and Jackie, 57, like so many of the people affected by the fire, have been given temporary accommodation in Drumchapel by Glasgow Housing Association; they are now in a flat a few doors down from their home.

“It wasn’t just a house it was our home,” Joe said. “My wife has to drive past it and she’s more attached to the house than I was. She nursed our son in there... she would never leave it. He died in 1995 but it still feels like it was yesterday. It is something that I will never get over.

But Joe added: “Me and my wife were recently talking about it and it’s not our home anymore. It has a lot of bad memories now.” Originally from Rutherglen, Joe met his wife Jackie when they were just 16 years old and they went on marry and have four children. They moved to Drumchapel 26 years ago and created a home, which their nine grandchildren often visited.

Jackie said she would like to move to a new property following the fire drama, however she and her husband have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the Drumchapel community.

A collection seeking furniture, white goods, clothes, baby products, toys and food was established within hours of the fire breaking out as people rallied to support the 20 residents affected.

Joe explained that a three-piece suite had been given to him by an electrician who cut the electricity when the fire broke out, whilst a neighbour gave Robert a bike after his was lost in the blaze.

Joe said: “Everyone has been fantastic. Kelly Eadie from across the road, we usually just say hello but when it happened she was straight on Facebook organising things. She has been really outstanding, everyone has been.

“I thought in this day and age that not just me and my wife, but everyone would be left on their own to pick up the pieces. But we have had so much help, and not just us everyone has.” Joe said his first priority was getting his current home decorated to ensure it felt 'homely’ for all the family, especially wife Jackie.

He said: “She has always had a nice house so we need to try and do something to make it special for her. If she’s happy then I will be too, It’s just going to take time.”