Sheffield mum's message to vandals who torched car which exploded just feet away from home where baby slept

When Emily Turner, 26, put her six-week-old daughter Nirvana Oxley to bed on Monday evening she had little inkling of the ordeal that was to come.

After going to sleep herself, Emily was awoken at just after 10:30pm and realised she could smell smoke.

She said: “I woke up and could smell the smoke so I looked out the window and saw the garden in flames. I was terrified, my neighbour has young kids too and she was just screaming.

“Your instincts just take over, I shut the door and went to get my baby out. I was worried, I didn’t have time to feel anything else my main concern was her being OK.

“There was smoke coming through her window, her room is a box-room and is quite small and stuff so we have the window open for ventilation.”

Emily, who lives in a corner property near to where the silver Ford Fiesta car was burnt out on Vikinglea Close, in Manor, said the blaze began at the bottom of the steps outside her back door but spread to her garden after the vehicle exploded.

Upon seeing the flames she immediately called the fire service before ringing the NHS 111 service to get Nirvana checked over.

Luckily firefighters were able to extinguish the flames within 15 minutes, allowing Emily and Nirvana to escape their home and get to a family member’s property.

Nirvana was taken to Sheffield Children’s Hospital as paramedics feared she might have suffered smoke inhalation, and was kept under observation until 7am the next day.

Emily said: “I just thank god she was OK, it makes you realise what is important in life and I’m no longer going to stress about the little things because it could have been completely different. We’re all in semi-detached houses, it is just ridiculous everyone was just panicking on the road.”

She is now urging other families to think about their own fire evacuation plan, something she had in place prior to the blaze having seen family members go through similar experiences.

After the incident Emily took to Facebook to send a message to the mindless vandals, saying: “I don't know if you'll ever see this, or if you'll ever feel any remorse for what you did but just know what you did could have been fatal and I will never forgive you.”

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Area Manager Steve Helps, said: “We recommend that every home has an escape plan so that each member of the family knows how to get out quickly in the event of a fire. Key things to think about are how you’d escape if your normal exit is blocked, a safe place to keep your keys and making sure doors and corridors aren’t blocked before you go to bed.

“Deliberate fires can easily cost lives because they can spread quickly, plus they potentially divert our resources from other, serious incidents elsewhere in the country. People starting fires do get caught and do get prosecuted.”

A group of teenage boys were seen driving around in the car shortly before 10pm on Monday, August 5.

It was later torched on a footpath between Vikinglea and Angleton Gardens.

Anyone with any information should call South Yorkshire Police on 101 quoting incident number 1,011 of August 5 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.