A woman has suffered severe burns after heroically saving her grandfather from a caravan fire in Skegness.

Melissa Shaw, 33, was at Coral Beach Holiday Park, Ingoldmells, for a weekend away with her grandparents, mother and aunty. 

But after the first night at the caravan, which her grandfather bought after retiring, Ms Shaw recalled waking up at 5am to the smell of fire and the sound of ringing alarms as the inferno rampaged through the vehicle.

The family frantically rushed to the exits, with the 33-year-old care worker suffering the most severe burns out of them all, before she realised her 80-year-old grandfather, Michael Thornton, was still inside.

She said: ‘I can’t remember if it was in my bedroom or the other room, I just remember trying to put a fire out and that’s how I got the burns on my hands. Then I woke my aunty up, and I was shouting for everyone.

‘My mum was already awake and shouting, and then me and my aunty went out of one door and my mum and my grandma went out another, and I was like “where’s my grandad?”‘

After realising Mr Thornton was in the caravan which was fully ablaze, Ms Shaw told how she rushed back in despite having already suffered extreme burns to her hands.

She added: ‘I couldn’t get him because of the injuries to my hands. I managed to get him out of bed but then he was at the bottom of the bed and I couldn’t get him out of the caravan by myself.’ 

Melissa Shaw (pictured) rescued her 80-year-old grandfather, Michael Thornton (pictured), from the burning caravan at Coral Beach Holiday Park, Ingoldmells

Ms Shaw recalled waking up at 5am to the smell of fire and the sound of ringing alarms as the inferno rampaged through the vehicle

As the caravan was uninsured, the family say they have ‘lost everything’ in the fire, which has since been ruled as accidental

Thankfully after having to ‘scream and shout for help’, the next door neighbour rushed to the scene and helped drag her grandfather to safety. 

In the aftermath of the blaze, the family were all taken to Boston Pilgrim Hospital to be checked, while Lincolnshire Police evacuated those in nearby caravans.

The force, who said a ‘scene guard had been erected for public protection’, also confirmed that the fire was not being treated as suspicious.

Ms Shaw from Bradford, Yorkshire, was the only member of the family to have suffered injuries which she spent three days in the hospital receiving treatment for.

She said: ‘Because they don’t have a burns injury ward they couldn’t do much for my burns, it was more keeping an eye on my breathing because of the smoke inhalation and because I have asthma it was playing up.’ 

As the caravan was uninsured, the family say they have ‘lost everything’ in the fire, which has since been ruled as accidental.

Ms Shaw added: ‘They have looked into it and the caravan was not insured, they can’t do anything about it. It was my car as well that set on fire, and my car is insured and stuff but it was on finance and the insurance won’t cover all the finance and the excess fee.

‘Some of us lost literally everything. I lost everything, even the clothes I was wearing because the hospital had to chop them off me to see if I had more burns anywhere else. They chopped the rings off my fingers.’

In the aftermath of the blaze, the family were all taken to Boston Pilgrim Hospital to be checked, while Lincolnshire Police evacuated those in nearby caravans

She explained that her mum and grandmother had managed to save their handbags, but that her aunt and grandfather also lost their belongings. 

Ms Shaw added: ‘My main concern was to get everyone out of the caravan, I wasn’t thinking “grab this, grab that”.’

Due to the severe burns on her hands, Ms Shaw has had part of her middle and ring fingers removed, and is expected to be off work for three months while waiting on a skin graft.

Ms Shaw’s niece, Leah Dibb, has since set up a GoFundMe page for the family, which has a goal of raising £1,000. 

The 23-year-old said: ‘Everyone is back home and everyone is pretty much all right, except for my aunty – she is suffering from really severe burns on her hands and she’s going to have to have multiple surgeries and it’s going to take a while for them to heal.’