A BELOVED family pet was killed in one of a series of arson attacks at the weekend - and it could have been so much worse.
Cars at Drumglass, Aldervale and Meadowbrook were targeted on Sunday, while on Wednesday last seven families were forced to leave their homes at Pinebank after an arson attack.
One of the victims of Sunday’s spree of fire-based vandalism in Craiga
von told how her family were lucky to be alive after their dramatic escape from their smoke-filled home.
19-year-old Aoife O’Reilly also spoke of the sadness at the death of her dog, Karamel, who was trapped in the garage which was cut off by the flames.
Two cars were burnt in Drumglass, including Aoife’s mother’s, and a further two vehicles were set alight in Aldervale and Meadowbrook in the early hours of Sunday morning. In most cases the burning cars caused further damage to property and sadly in Aoife’s family’s case their pet lost its life.
Aoife, who lives in Drumglass with her 21-year-old sister Roisin and her mum Mary Sheen, told the ‘MAIL’: “The car alarm was going off and it had woken us up. We didn’t think anything of it as it’s sometimes set off by the wind. After it had gone off for ages mum went to look and the car was on fire.
“There was black smoke filling the house. We couldn’t get out the doors - both of them were on fire. My sister Roisin got out the bedroom window. Mum got out the living room window and got over the neighbours fence. I got out the bedroom window.”
She continued: “The dog was sleeping in the garage. She didn’t have a chance.”
Karamel had belonged to Aoife for the last eight years. She told how she wanted to save her beloved pet but couldn’t get near the garage because of the flames and smoke.
“We were lucky to get out alive,” she said.
“The room was filling up with smoke when we got out the window. Whoever did this needs to stop and think. It’s going to be too late when someone dies. I’m so upset about my dog.”
Aoife, her sister and her mum ended up with bruising from the panicked escape and had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
She said the family have had to move out, but they were hoping to get back into the house when windows and doors have been repaired.
She added: “There’s a lot of work to be done inside the house because of smoke damage. Even when the house is fixed there’s the trauma of what happened to deal with.”
Her mother Mary said: “I’ve been campaigning for ages to have that alley beside us closed off. It’s been the source of many problems. We’re lucky we’re still alive. It’s lucky I was able to get out of the window. It’s lucky the fire people put it out before it got to the oil tank. I’d just had 900 litres put in it.”
