PA
A mum who lost all four of her children in a house fire has given birth to a baby boy who has helped her to smile again.
Rachel Allen lost her two sons and two daughters as she tried to help them escape the horrific blaze in December 2011.
The 45-year-old hairdresser escaped the flames but children Tommy, nine, Alisha, six, Rocco, four, and Appolonia, two, all died.
After the fire Rachel said: "Every day is very difficult but I feel it's slowly getting better. The mornings don't seem as harsh as they did at first.
"I replay it in my head every day but I've had lots of support - lots of cards and lovely flowers, people wishing me well for the future."
But now Rachel has found a level of happiness again after having a boy with fiance Clint Eyre, 40, that the couple have named Roman.
He was born on October 12, weighing 8lb 8oz. Rachel has also moved back into the newly renovated house in Hulland Ward, Derby, where the tragedy took place.
She said: "He's such a good baby. He never really cries. Looking after him is a distraction and I really enjoy it.
"When I wake up I go to him and fuss over him, instead of lying there thinking about the children. There are still nights where I have bad dreams and there are flashbacks, But I want to face these things and get over them. Having Roman with me is helping that so much."
The blaze started after a stray spark jumped from a newly installed fireplace onto the living room floor, triggering a fire which spread rapidly through the home.
Rachel was woken up by Tommy and tried to help her children escape but she said she was thrown from a window of the property and was then unable to re-enter the house and save them.
At an inquest into the fire, Rachel denied jumping out of the window and leaving her son behind, saying she had been trying to push nine-year-old Tommy through the window to safety when she suddenly found herself falling.
A South Derbyshire coroner ruled that a working smoke alarm and fire guard could have prevented the deaths of the children.
Rachel told her local paper this week: "Everything you look at in the house reminds you. I think about them every day, all the time. And there are nightmares and flashbacks and things which just get me upset, without being able to control it. But it does get easier.
"Roman reminds me of Tommy in the way he looks and some of the things he does. But I don't really think about that. I can't, not yet, it's just too raw.
"Roman will never replace them, at all, and I don't want to forget them. But looking after him distracts me from thinking about them."