A mother and two young children who died in a flat fire in Nottingham were set for a new life in America before they were killed, the children’s father has said.

Aboubacarr Drammeh was securing visas for his wife and their two young daughters so they could join him in Minnesota, where he works as a biomedical technologist.

But tragedy unfolded when 28-year-old Fatoumatta Hydara and her daughters Fatimah, aged three, and one-year-old Naeemah died in the blaze at their Clifton home on 20 November.

Mr Drammeh described the past week as the hardest of his life and said he will never get over spending his 40th birthday in the hospital mortuary.

In a statement released by police, he said: “The plan was to move Fatoumatta and the kids to America so we could all live together.

“We had an interview booked for November 29 and that would have been the final interview before we would hopefully have secured their visas.

“That’s not going to happen now and I can’t understand why.”

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Jamie Barrow, 31, has been charged with three counts of murder following the deaths.

He appeared in court on Friday where he spoke only to confirm his name and address and was remanded in custody.

Describing the moment he learnt about the fire, Mr Drammeh said: “It was 5am when I got the call.

“I was praying and afterwards I saw I had missed five calls from the children’s grandmother. I called back and she started crying.

“She said there had been a fire and the kids didn’t make it and that Fatoumatta was in the intensive care unit.”

He described his wife as “caring and very compassionate” who would help whoever she could.

“She loved the kids,” he added. “They did a lot of baking together and fun things in the house.

“They would make cookies and cupcakes and loved putting the icing on the cakes.”

Mr Drammeh revealed he last spoke to his wife a few hours before the fire and also paid an emotional tribute to his two young daughters, who he would talk to every day on FaceTime.

“They were both really happy children,” he said.

“They loved spending time with their grandparents and got along really well as siblings.”

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