The worst choice any parent could face
Mother’s nightmare as she has to pick which child to save first from car fire
A MOTHER was forced to choose which of her two children to save first after her car burst into flames.
Emily Smith’s youngsters were ‘seconds from death’ when her Renault Scenic caught fire in a shopping centre car park.
With her 11- month old son Joseph still asleep in the back, she decided to pull her screaming three-year- old daughter Emmy-Leigh out first.
She just managed to get the boy out too before the vehicle exploded in a fireball. Another one-year-old, who was travelling with Miss Smith’s friend, was also pulled to safety in the nick of time. The blaze happened at St Stephen’s shopping centre in Hull last Monday, weeks after Miss Smith bought the car for £950.
All three children were strapped in the back following a shopping trip to Tesco. But when Miss Smith pressed the start button, the car burst into flames. As smoke started to enter the interior of the car, a passerby used his bottled drink to douse flames in the footwell to give the young mother time to get out.
Faced with every parent’s worst nightmare, it dawned on her that she would have to choose which child to save first. The 26-year-old said: ‘ My three- year- old was screaming and she was aware of what was happening so I grabbed her seat belt first and threw her at this woman passing by.
‘The baby was still asleep and the seat belt had become tangled in the back of his car seat and no matter how hard I was pulling I couldn’t get it out. The car seat was starting to melt because of the heat and in the end I just unbuckled him and ran with him out of the car. That’s when the car started making explosion noises and the whole thing went up in flames. We were seconds from death.’
All three children were taken to hospital for a check-up.
After the incident, the mother-oftwo tried to get a refund from Auto Touch, where she had bought the vehicle, but was offered only a £300 ‘goodwill voucher’. She was also given a payout by her insurance company. Car seats, a pram, dashcam and toys were destroyed in the fire, which Miss Smith believes has left her with a total loss of £937 including the excess fee.
Tesco refunded her for the shopping she lost in the fire and one staff member even offered her £15 to make up for the toys.
Auto Touch said: ‘We have done everything we can to help them.’
‘His car seat was starting to melt’