A MOTHER has told of the terrifying moment she saw her car on fire in the middle of the night - with flames lapping at her two-year-old son’s bedroom window.
Kirsty Howard’s car was set on fire outside her house in Ronkswood in the early hours of Saturday morning (July 15).
And she says the brave actions of a passing taxi driver saved her family’s lives.
“I woke up to a taxi driver banging on my door at 3.50am,” said Kirsty.
“I ran through into my son’s room, looked out the window and saw flames - loads of flames.
“I picked him up out of bed, ran downstairs and for some reason I opened the front door to see if we could get out, but the heat sent me back.
“So we ran into the back garden with the baby and called 999. They told me someone had already reported it and they were on their way.”
Kirsty said firefighters at the scene told her that if the fire had burned for another five minutes, it could have spread to her partner’s van, which was also on the drive and contains cans of petrol for his work as a tree surgeon.
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She also said she was grateful her daughter had been out at a sleepover.
“This could all have been a very different story,” she said. “I keep playing it over in my mind - we could’ve ended up in the hospital or worse.
“That taxi driver has saved our lives. He must have come past the fire to get to the house - what he did was really brave and I would like to thank him in person.”
Kirsty has a suspicion she knows who started the fire.
“They have put petrol at the front and at the back of the car, so they would’ve seen a child’s car seat in the back - who does that?”
A West Mercia Police spokeswoman said: “Police were called to a vehicle fire on Ripon Road, Worcester on Saturday, July 15 at around 4am.
“No one was injured. It is currently being treated as arson. Investigations are still ongoing.”
A spokesman for the fire service said: “Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service was called out to a small vehicle on fire in Worcester at 3.48am on Saturday.
“One Worcester Fire Station crew attended Ripon Road to find one car well alight outside a property.
“The fire was extinguished by two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and using one hose reel jet.
“The police were also in attendance with arson suspected as the cause of the fire.
“The crew fitted new smoke alarms in the nearby property and left the scene at 5.10am.”
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