Woman killed with niece in Middlesbrough house fire was ‘a beautiful soul’, says mother

A woman who died in a house fire along with her seven-year-old niece has been described as “a beautiful soul”.Natalie McDonald, 34, died along with her niece Valentina Foster, seven, in the blaze in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, in the early hours of Wednesday.The fire is less than a mile from the scene of a crash on the A66 on Saturday which killed seven people, including two police officers. Police have said they are not ruling out links between the two incidents, or connections to organised crime.Cleveland police have yet to officially name the two people who died in Wednesday’s house fire, but they have been named locally.Lisa Kirton, McDonald’s mother, told the BBC her daughter had been “a beautiful soul, who would have done anything for anybody”.Her daughter had been “lovely, bright and bubbly” and “everybody loved her”, she said.Kirton said Valentina, also known as Tina, had been spending the summer holidays with the family. “She was a cute little kid. I can’t believe it, seven years old – it’s just a disgrace.”She said McDonald’s 15-year-old daughter and a friend had managed to escape through an upstairs window. The friend, she said, had “kicked out a window” and “had saved their lives”.Police officers at the scene in Grangetown on Thursday morning. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PATwo men, aged 23 and 31, have been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the blaze. They remain in police custody.The force has not ruled out a link between the fire and the earlier crash, which killed two police officers and five young men.Supt Emily Harrison said: “We continue to work to establish the circumstances of exactly what has happened, but we are keeping an open mind and cannot rule out any links to wider organised crime at this time.”The A66 crash on Saturday morning involved a VW Passat travelling the wrong way before it crashed head-on into a police car, travelling the correct way.The two police officers who died in the crash were PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38.All five occupants of the Passat died at the scene. They were Cole Worthy and Theo Rae, both 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and Michael Robert Cahill and Jakub Matusiak, both 23.Inquests into the deaths of all seven are due to be opened and adjourned in Middlesbrough on Thursday.The house fire in Grangetown was described by neighbours as fierce. A 20-year-old neighbour described running up and down the street, shouting to raise the alarm, and how local residents had tried to rescue the occupants.Ellie, who declined to give her surname, said: “The entire house was scorching. I couldn’t get near the front of the house, it was that hot.”She described holding the hand of a crying woman who had jumped from an upstairs window, staying with her until paramedics arrived.