A four-year-old boy has tragically passed away several days after a horrific house fire in Wigan.
His 45-year-old dad also died from his injuries on the day of the blaze, at around 2.30am on Sunday 14 April.
The young boy was rushed to hospital with serious injuries, but died in hospital earlier today.
Four other people received treatment following the house fire on Warrington Road at the weekend.
Local authorities do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances involved in the incident.
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And Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue are continuing to investigate the causes of the fire and are in regular contact with officers.
A GoFundMe page set up to support the family has named the father and son as Barry and Ethan Mason.
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Prior to Ethan’s death, it said: “Hello, my name is Jessica. Yesterday morning at around 1am my sister’s house went up in flames.
“Devastatingly we lost my brother in law and my beautiful little nephew has suffered over 86% burns to his body.
“The last thing this man did was to run back into a burning house and save his little boy.”
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It then detailed that Ethan had spent a long time in surgery and been placed in an induced coma, and was given only a 10% chance of survival. Tragically, he did not make it.
The GoFundMe continued: “We are all absolutely heartbroken, but my sister and her other children have lost absolutely everything.
“I have set up this go fund me to not only help with funeral costs but to help with clothing and other necessities for her other babies, and to help with the financial burden my sister will have to cope with on top of losing her husband and having her baby in hospital for god knows how long.
“Anything you can donate will be massively appreciated. Thankyou for reading and Love to all.
“Hold your babies a little bit tighter because you just never know.”
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The GoFundMe has already raised more than £33,000, at the time of writing.
Detective Inspector Lee Gridley, from GMP’s Wigan district, said: “This is a devastating incident and all of our thoughts are with the family of this young boy, who had his entire life ahead of him.
“Together with the earlier death, this is a tragedy for the Wigan community and I know that many people will be shocked by this heartbreaking news.
“I hope people will join us in sending their absolute best wishes to all those involved in this incident, as they begin their journey in the healing process.
“While we are not treating the incident as suspicious, if anyone has any information they believe is important, please do get in touch with us. You can do this by calling police on 101, quoting log 393 of 14/04/2024.”
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The family have asked for their privacy as they come to terms with their loss, and have asked for people to respect their grieving process.
Simon Wood announces gutting closure of Manchester restaurant after seven years
Danny Jones
Celebrity chef and Manchester local Simon Wood has announced that his self-titled WOOD Restaurant has sadly closed its doors.
The Oldham-born chef-owner who won MasterChef back in 2015, revealed the unfortunate news on Wednesday, 2 October, confirming that the First Street site will be closing immediately. Truly gutting.
Wood has remained one of Greater Manchester’s most-renowned chefs for the past decade, not to mention a huge advocate for supporting the hospitality industry, especially post-Covid and during the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Sharing an emotional post on Instagram, he wrote: “It is with much regret that I have to inform you that I must close the doors here at WOOD for good, with immediate effect.”
“We have had 7 years as part of the Manchester city dining scene and I’m very proud of what the team and I have achieved”, the 48-year-old continued.
“Sadly with COVID rent arrears now being demanded by our landlord and an increasingly difficult marketplace, energy increases, ingredient costs and soon-to-be spiralling business rates we just cannot make this work.”
“I’d like to thank everyone for your support and patronage over the years. Thank you, Simon.”
It was only at the start of the week that Wood shared a frustrated post about a group of no-show customers over the weekend that failed to even pre-warn that they would no longer be attending one of his most exclusive and costly experiences.
We’re starting to lose count of how many local businesses are unfortunately struggling in the face of the rising business rates and energy bills that all independents are facing at the minute.
It was only last month that we saw Almous Famous had to call it a day with their Withington location and beloved sandwich spot Micky’s sadly suffer the same fate. Even cult favourite Cafe Marhaba looks to have gone up for sale. So tough to swallow.
We’re genuinely gutted for everyone involved with the brand. All the best, Si – we know you’ll be back stronger than ever one of these days.
Featured Images — The Manc Group
News
No trams to run through major Manchester city centre station this weekend
Emily Sergeant
Arguably Manchester city centre’s most important tram stop is set to be out of action this weekend, with no services running through it.
In what is another part of Transport for Greater Manchester‘s (TfGM) ongoing programme of works intended to “maintain and improve” the Metrolink system and ensure tram journeys in Greater Manchester remain “safe, reliable, and accessible”, it’s been confirmed that no trams will run through Cornbrook this weekend.
Due to this, there will be a change to operating patterns across the majority of the Metrolink network on both Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October.
As is often the case in instances like these, disruption to passengers is expected.
On Saturday and Sunday [5 and 6 October], no trams will operate through Cornbrook.
There will be a change to operating patterns and replacement bus services will be in operation.
On Saturday (5 October), the tram service pattern will change to Altrincham – Old Trafford, Bury – Ashton-under-Lyne, East Didsbury – Firswood, Etihad Campus – Bury (peak time only) / Victoria (after peak only), Manchester Airport – Firswood, Rochdale Town Centre – Deansgate-Castlefield (via Exchange Square), and The Trafford Centre – Wharfside.
Similarly, on Sunday (6 October), the only difference to the above service pattern is that the Etihad Campus tram will only run to Victoria, not Bury.
Services will operate every 12 minutes, except for on the Eccles line, where no trams will run at all.
TfGM is also warning that there may be changes to the first and last tram times during these works, but, in bid to help people still get to their destinations, three bus replacement services will operate from Firswood to Victoria, Old Trafford to Piccadilly, and Eccles to Piccadilly.
No trams will run through major Manchester city centre station Cornbrook this weekend / Credit: TfGM
The Old Trafford to Piccadilly bus service will run through Wharfside, while the Eccles to Piccadilly will travel via MediaCity.
“These works are a vitally important part of maintaining a safe and reliable network for all our customers,” explained
Ian Davies, who is TfGM’s Interim Network Director for Metrolink, said these works are “a vitally important part” of maintaining the Metrolink, and that work has been scheduled by TfGM to “minimise disruption to passengers and residents as much as possible”.
Daisy Jackson -
17th April 2024 
