FAMILY’S CLOSE CALL

NEIGHBOURS KICKED IN FRONT DOOR TO SAVE FAMILY AFTER CAR SET ALIGHT

A WEXFORD family say they owe their lives to neighbours who ‘ kicked in’ their front door after a car was set on fire in the driveway of the home they had been living in for the past seven weeks.

The family of four, including two children aged seven weeks and four year old, was woken at 2 a.m. after neighbours began kicking and banging on the door to wake them up.

‘ Thank God to our neighbours because our car was up in flames.. our children were asleep in the bedroom above,’ said the woman, who asked not to be identified. She said the car fire was just below her children’s bedroom.

She labelled whoever set the car on fire in Shana Court, in Coolcotts, as ‘dirty, disgusting people’.

‘ We have been living in that area just over seven weeks and this happens.. these people need to be caught,’ she said, urging anyone who could held trace the culprits not to keep quiet ‘ to help this happening again to someone else’.

She said that if the car had been a petrol rather than a diesel vehicle, the family would have had a chance.

Wexford Fire Brigade said it sent one unit to the house following an emergency call at 1.50 a.m. last Tuesday. The car, a Renault people carrier, was well ablaze from the back.

Two fire fighters used breathing apparatus to tackle the blaze, with the fire crew ‘going mobile’ again around 45 minutes later.

The woman told this newspaper that she was woken by loud banging and thought someone was trying to break in.

‘He went downstairs and saw the neighbours, our car was on fire.. we just grabbed the kids and ran outside,’ she said.

‘It was really horrible, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse,’ she said, praising the fire brigade for their fast response.

The woman said she had no idea who might have set the car on fire or why.

Anyone who can help the gardai with their investigation is asked to call Wexford Garda Station on 053 9165200.