An electrical fault is to blame for the fire that destroyed the country home of broadcaster Emma Freud, 60, and screenwriter Richard Curtis, 65.
The celebrity couple was unharmed on Sunday night as the blaze tore through their timber-framed, 18th-century home in Walberswick, Suffolk, upper storeys and roof.
For eight hours, fourteen fire crews fought the blaze and tore tiles from the building’s roof to put out hotspots at night.
Ms. Freud thanked the firemen for their efforts while documenting the smoke coming from her burning home in Instagram photos.
Has been a dark few days, she wrote in her post. Our house caught fire because of an electrical issue.
“We are safe thanks to the incredible eight-hour work of 60 Suffolk firemen.
No bedroom, roof, or clothes, but my brother also came to our aid, and we are all fine.
She added in her message, “Thank you so much for the sweet, sweet messages.
We’re fortunate because we’re covered by insurance, have a house on loan, and aren’t hurt.
Since the 1930s, the semi-detached home in the heart of the affluent village has belonged to Freud’s family.
It is thought that Mr. Curtis wrote some of his most well-known films there.
The author is renowned for his romantic comedies, which include Love Actually, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Additionally, he and Sir Lenny Henry co-founded the British charity Comic Relief, which has raised over $1 billion.
He is also well-known for his television roles on Mr. Bean, Blackadder, Not the Nine O’Clock News, and the Vicar of Dibley.
Despite spending more than 30 years together, the couple has never been married.
Their primary residence is in Notting Hill, west London.
On Monday, the house’s open windows revealed layers of soot, and the air was filled with the smell of charred ember remains.
Present were people at the house, but I’m not sure if Richard and Emma were there, a local remarked.
Just before 10:00 p.m., “We all of a sudden saw the fire engines come.
The smoke was thick. White smoke, as well as a lot of it, was coming from the chimney and the sides and roof of the building. The smoke was trying to escape.
With their breathing apparatus on, the firefighters entered the building and opened all the windows.
They were spraying the roof with large hoses. I suppose it was done to calm it down.
Later, hook ladders were erected, and workers climbed them to remove tiles, which caused even more smoke to escape.
According to a spokesperson for the Suffolk Fire Service, the alarm was raised on Sunday at 9.53 p.m. and crews remained on the scene until just before 6 a.m.
A spokesperson for the company said: “On arrival, crews discovered a fire on the first and second floors as well as in the roof cavity, necessitating the cutting away of some of the property’s roof to access some of the hot spots.
No one was hurt in the incident, and the crews have since left the scene.
Framlingham, Leiston, Saxmundham, Wrentham, Halesworth, Bungay, Beccles, Haverhill, and Lowestoft dispatched crews to the fire, along with two Norfolk-based appliances.
The house was initially purchased by Ernst Freud, the youngest son of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the grandfather of Emma the architect, in the 1930s when he fled Germany as the Nazis began to gain power there.
The former Liberal MP, TV personality, and actor Sir Clement Freud and his wife Jill, who ran a summer theater in neighboring Southwold, took over the operation. Sir Clement was Ernst’s late son.
In 2003, they in turn gave it to Mr. Curtis and Ms. Freud.
On the fringes of Walberswick, Mr. Curtis is also thought to own a former fisherman’s cottage with a view of the beach and wind-tossed marshland.
The beach community’s famous citizens are well-known. Others who have recently owned vacation houses there include the Men Behaving Badly actress Caroline Quentin, the BBC Radio Five host Simon Mayo, and the London’s Burning actress Sharon Duce.
In December 2020, Mr. Curtis said he felt “amazingly happy” to have a residence in Walberswick and that’s where he spent the first lockdowns.
His most recent book, That Christmas, which he co-wrote with illustrator Rebecca Cobb and is set in Suffolk and tells the tale of an unusual Christmas, was inspired by the locale.
He dedicated the book to the residents of Walberswick, which up until 2010 served as the location of the annual British Crab Championships.
The Sea House, a book by Ms. Freud’s cousin Esther Freud, is likewise situated in the hamlet.