ON the night of November 12, we had the terrible misfortune of losing our beautiful thatched house in Tinhay to a severe fire. Thankfully, no one was harmed and both my husband, myself and our dogs are safe. It is so very hard to try and thank everyone that helped and rallied round on that awful night but we have several special thanks that we would like to give. Firstly, to Trevor Parrish, who alerted us to the flames on the roof, as we had absolutely no idea it was alight. Then to neighbours Chris and Anne James, Sue and Graham, Di and Mark and of course Fiona and Ian Pidgeon ? our dearest friends who opened their home to us until we found somewhere more permanent to live. However, our biggest thanks of all go to every one of the 60 magnificent firemen who attended. Now, anyone who thinks that firemen just put out fires (just like we did) needs to think again. We stood in total shock and disbelief, expecting to see everything we own disappear in front of our eyes, but then an angel in the guise of a fireman asked me what was the priority to remove from the house. What followed next was a sight to behold as piece by piece, drawer by drawer, book by book and photograph by photograph were brought out by the fire crews. Eventually, downstairs was emptied and some of upstairs came out too. Upstairs heated up quickly and filled with smoke, so unfortunately we lost a lot of our possessions that were upstairs and some salvaged items are smoke or water damaged. But I am writing this in my temporary home surrounded by many of my treasured and irreplaceable possessions, which without the wonderful, fearless, thoughtful and relentless firemen, would have been lost forever. I know there were fire crews from several fire stations in attendance and first to our house was Gary Chapman and his Launceston crew, closely followed by Tavistock and then others from further afield. We so wish we could thank each one individually and we want each one of those attending firemen (you all know who you are) to know that we are extremely grateful and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. The events of that night will stay in our memories forever but even more so the bravery and courage of each fireman. To us they are true heroes. Thank you. Ruth and Dean Brighton The Barn Colmans Farm, Lifton