Children killed in Boxing Day hearth alongside mum recognized by DNA as inquests open
Fionnghuala Shearman, 38, known as Nu, and her children, Eve, seven, and four-year-old Ohner, were all killed in a house fire in Brimscombe, near Stroud, Gloucestershire on Boxing Day
Fionnghuala Shearman with husband Tom(Image: )
A mum and her two children killed in a Boxing Day house fire died from “exposure to the combustion products of fire,” an inquest has heard. Fionnghuala Shearman, 38, affectionately known as Nu, and her children, Eve, seven, and four year old Ohner, perished when a blaze engulfed their home in Brimscombe, near Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Her police officer husband, Tom Shearman made desperate attempts to save his family but was repelled by the intensity of the flames.
Emergency services were summoned to the mid-terrace Cotswold stone cottage on Brimscombe Hill around 3am. Katy Skerrett, senior coroner for Gloucestershire, initiated three separate inquests into the deaths of Mrs Shearman and her two children at Gloucestershire coroner’s court on Monday.
Detailing the circumstances of the “tragic” deaths, Ms Skerrett informed the court: “The fire service was contacted at 3.12am on December 26 2025 by a neighbour reporting that there was a fire.
“When the fire service arrived, the house, a terrace cottage, was well ablaze. It took some time to contain that blaze. It was established that only one of the four occupants had managed to escape the cottage alive, Tom Shearman.
“The other three occupants were unable to exit the house due to the fire and smoke which engulfed the property. When Tom had been spoken to by the police he explained that he and Fionnghuala were awoken by smoke during the night.
“He got out of bed and attempted to enter the children’s bedroom, but the smoke and heat prevented him from doing so.
“He managed to exit the cottage by the bathroom window and then attempted to re-enter the house by the window, but once again, the fire prevented him from doing so.
“Despite several repeated attempts, he was unable to re-enter the house.”
Ms Skerrett said a forensic pathologist had given a provisional cause of death for all three members of the Shearman family as “exposure to the combustion products of fire, pending toxicology and microscopy”.
The court heard Mrs Shearman was formally identified from a tattoo on her body while her two children were identified by DNA analysis.
The coroner adjourned all three inquests and did not set a further date. No members of the Shearman family attended the brief hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes.
Police believe the fire started on the ground floor and investigations are ongoing to establish the cause, but it is not being treated as suspicious.
The fire destroyed the roof, the ceilings and the stairs, as well as causing other significant internal damage. A fundraising campaign for the family has so far raised nearly £440,000.
