Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Car fire horror for mum of disabled daughter
A “devastated” Coatbridge mum had to look on in horror as her specially adapted car for her disabled daughter burned to “a shell”.
Elaine Russell used the automatic VW Caddy to take Natalie, 31, who has spina bifida and epilepsy, to appointments and for days out – and labelled the crucial vehicle a “lifeline” for the family.
But tragedy struck on October 21, when a blaze gutted the car and another vehicle on Douglas View during the early hours of the morning. Emergency services raced to the scene after the alarm was raised at around 2am.
A vehicle in a car park area on the road had caught fire before the flames quickly spread. Two burnt out shells were all that remained after the fires.
Fighters battled the flames before they spread throughout the whole of the second car, but it was still gutted by the blaze.
Elaine, 54, told how she had been awoken by neighbours and watched the drama unfold.
She said: “”I was woke out my bed at 2am to be told my car was on fire. One of my neighbours in the close came and was chapping on my door at that time. It was devastating standing and watching it. There was nothing left.
“The guy who stays on the next close’s car went on fire and it caught my disabled car.
“It’s horrible, especially when you have people to take out and appointments to go to.
“The car was adapted for my daughter, who is disabled. She’s in a wheelchair and obviously can’t walk and has to be in her chair at all times.
“It was used for transporting her to appointments and for medicine and basically anything that she needed – even just to take her out places.
“She has spina bfida and epilepsy. The car is a real lifeline for us; we’re lost without it.”