I won’t leave my home, vows mum targeted in Belfast arson attack
A MOTHER who had to flee from her north Belfast home with her baby son during an arson attack has said she will not be driven out of the area she has lived all her life.
Jamie-Lee Thompson (21) was woken at around 4.30am on Saturday by her smoke alarm, which had been triggered by fumes in her Ballysillan house from a blaze near the side of her home.
Looking outside she could see flames rising to the upstairs level of the house she had moved into less than 24 hours earlier.
Smoke was spilling into the bedroom where her one-year-old son was sleeping.
Ms Thompson said it was one of the most traumatic moments of her life.
She said: “When I woke with the alarm I couldn’t figure out where the smoke was coming from, but when I looked outside I could see the flames reaching right up to the bedroom.
“Smoke was coming in through the air vents and when I ran to my son’s room it was filled and he was lying there.
“I was terrified, I thought we were both going to die. I’m still traumatised just thinking about what could have happened to us and the fact that whoever did this didn’t care.
“My car was parked outside so whoever lit that fire knew someone was inside and that is the scariest thing — they did not care.
“Once I realised what was happening I ran outside and shouted for my neighbours who came out and took my son to their house and I tried to get the fire out until the Fire Service came.
“I have lived in Ballysillan all my life, this is where I am from and I am not going to let anyone drive me out.
“I only moved into this house the day before this happened — in fact I hadn’t even managed to get all my furniture in.
“I worked so hard saving up money to get the house the way I wanted it, but now I have to spend my money on installing CCTV cameras so I can feel safe here.
“I’ve had to leave because the fire damaged the electric box outside the house and the electric is off but as soon as it is fixed and the cameras are installed I will return — no one is going to make me move.”
This is the sixth time a house in the Ballysillan area has come under attack in recent weeks.
However PUP councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston said “there are reasonable grounds to suggest it may be unrelated” to the other attacks.
Ms Corr-Johnston said Ms Thompson had described to her “the crippling fear she experienced when she opened the door to her baby boy’s smoked-filled bedroom”.
She added: “The person(s) responsible, whatever their motivation, clearly had no regard whatsoever for the lives of this young woman and her son.”
DUP councillor Dale Pankhurst said: “I’m shocked, angry and appalled that this has happened yet again.
“It is important that this attack, like others before it, is condemned. The community in Greater Ballysillan and beyond are totally sickened by these cowardly attacks, clearly being carried out by criminal elements with a sinister motive.”
SDLP councillor Paul McCusker said people living in Ballysillan wanted to be allowed to live in peace.