Antrim arson: Pensioner was screaming out the window after home set alight

A bin was set alight and placed at the front door of the property.

A neighbour saw what happened and phoned emergency services.

“I can’t thank my mum’s neighbour Bernadette enough” Michelle said.

“If it wasn’t for her seeing that fire starting, five more minutes and my mum wouldn’t be alive today.”

She said Wilma was in a critical condition in hospital.

“Her eyes are badly burned, her lips are swollen, her lungs are full of soot, she can’t breathe on her own, she’s in an induced coma,” she said.

“She is really bad. We’ll be very lucky if we get her back out of the hospital alive.”

Michelle also underwent surgery for six hours after she cut an artery and a tendon in her arm while trying to rescue her mum.

She broke a window to try to get inside the property while her partner tried to climb the drainpipe before the fire service arrived and brought Wilma out of the property.

“I just wanted in to save her, to get her out” she said.

Michelle said her partner went inside and took four breaths but was beaten back by the flames.

“I got out of the hospital yesterday and it was the first time I saw my mum,” she said.

“I have never seen anything like it. She’s tubes everywhere, she can’t breathe on her own. She’s not the same woman lying up there.

“I hope whoever’s done this feels guilty for the rest of their lives. They need to bring themselves forward.”