Lucky escape
Thursday, 29 July 2010
The car and house in Burnfoot that were damaged by an arson attack during the early hours of Monday morning.
POLICE and politicians have appealed for information following an early morning arson attack in Burnfoot.
A car, parked at the front of a house in Rosebrook Park was set alight at approximately 3am on Monday morning, while the owner and his partner were asleep in the house. The couple, who do not wished to be named, were alerted to the blaze by neighbours banging on their front door.
The resident said: "I went downstairs and saw the flames. We're still in shock. The fireman said that another two minutes and the whole house would have gone up." Fortunately, the couple's two young children were not in the home at the time of the attack. The resident said that the children will not be returning to the area until the damage to the property is fixed, and added: "How can we explain to them what happened? We now have to find somewhere for them to stay and it's not fair on them."
The couple wished to express their gratitude to their friends and neighbours who have helped them during this attack.
Local resident, Deputy Mayor Boyd Douglas said the community were shocked by the attack: "Burnfoot's a quiet village, everyone's quite shocked by this happening here. We're very fortunate no one was injured or killed. If the neighbours hadn't raised the alarm when they did we could be dealing with a fatality, it's very scary. The car was very close to the house and, given more time, the house could have gone up as well. I would appeal for anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the area to contact police regardless of how small or insignificant they may think their information may be."
Police are particularly keen to speak to anyone who has any information regarding a black Vauxhall Vectra seen in the area prior to the fire.
The telephone number to ring is 0845 600 8000. Alternatively information can be passed on anonymously through the 'Crimestoppers' charity on freephone 0800 555 111.
Subscribe to read full newspaper »
Send to a friend
Please complete the following form to inform a friend about this page.
