A mother of two says she could have been killed after both of her cars were torched in an arson attack in Co Down.
The vehicles were set alight in the early hours of Wednesday (6 May) in the Killynure Green area of Carryduff.
It’s understood the fire began in a Mercedes before spreading to a BMW parked beside it.
The incident was reported to police at around 4:45am. PSNI officers are treating the blaze as arson.
Police are investigating an incident of arson after two cars were damaged in a fire outside a house in County Down in the early hours of Wednesday.
The incident happened in Killynure Green in Carryduff.
PICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN
Stephanie Walker (29), who was asleep in bed with her four‑year‑old son, Marcus Boyle at the time, said the attack has left her shaken and fearing what could have happened.
She told The Irish News it is Marcus’s birthday tomorrow. She added: “I am still in shock. I don’t know what’s going on. Me and my wee boy, who turns five tomorrow, were sleeping. I could see an orange tinge; I didn’t have a inkling what was going on. It was whenever heard my neighbour screaming to get out of the house now. I thought my downstairs was on fire, or my living room on fire, I didn’t know how I was getting downstairs.
“I lifted the child and ran down the stairs. I got to the bottom and opened the front door and the smoke… the whole street was orange. I ran down into my neighbour’s garden, and by that time the BM then caught on fire.”
Stephanie added that the pair of them could have died.
She said: “I’ve lived there for five years and have had no issues, then this. It’s scary when you’re woke at half four in the morning to your car being on fire. There were other cars on the street, I was targeted. To me that’s attempted murder, if I hadn’t have heard my neighbours, me and my son would not be here.
“My son is still so scared. He told me, ‘Mummy, if I had seen the fire first, I would have woken you up.’ God love him, he’s innocent. That should never come out of a child’s mouth, never mind him actually going through something like that.
“I don’t know what will happen now. I’ve lost my home I’ve lost my cars. Ill not be back to that house again.”
The neighbour who initially saw the fire told The Irish News things could have ended very differently.
She said: “If I hadn’t of woke up when I did and raised the alarm, and told the fire brigade, it would have been a different story. That girl and her child would have been dead this morning.”
Councillor for Castlereagh South Brian Higginson has condemned the attack which happened at a social housing property.
The DUP representative told The Irish News a ‘quick thinking neighbour’ saved Stephanie and Marcus’s: “I was talking to the resident, she is traumatised. She never heard the two pops of the explosions. It was the shouts and screams of her neighbours that woke her. She then grabbed her child and ran outside past the burning cars. So, a quick-thinking neighbour saved their life.
“She (Stephanie) is having to go and stay with her family, before being emergency housed. This kind of behaviour has no place in our community, and I strongly condemn those responsible for this attack.”
A PSNI spokesperson said: “Officers attended the scene alongside colleagues from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service who extinguished the blaze.
“We are treating this report as arson – with a line of enquiry that one vehicle was initially set on fire which then spread to another parked in the same driveway. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.”