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Elderly couple's lucky escape
An elderly couple cheated death after a terrifying arson attack on their home.
Police say that Joan and Fred Pilkington are lucky to be alive and it is fortunate that officers are now not conducting a murder inquiry.
The 73-year-olds from Manchester Road, Astley, today spoke of their anger and bafflement at apparently being randomly targeted by malicious firebugs who had soaked foam in petrol or some other accelerant and thrown it into their porch.
The attack took place at about 10.45pm on Saturday, January 23. Joan had gone upstairs to watch television and Fred, who is disabled after a stroke and hard of hearing, was in a back downstairs room with the door closed, also watching TV.
Joan heard a bang and then crackling, and thought was something electrical short-circuiting.
She said: "I went to the top of the stairs and could see flames in the porch. I ran to the back living room and told Fred the porch was on fire.
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"We tried to open the front door to get at it. This probably wasn't the cleverest thing to do but we couldn't shift the door anyway.
"So we went out the back and I got a bowl of water from the kitchen. It still hadn't occurred to me that we had been the victim of any sort of crime but then after throwing water on the flames, we noticed that this piece of foam Fred uses for cleaning the car that had been propped up behind some plant pots was inside the porch.
"It looked like someone had first tried pushing it through the letterbox but the police said they must have pulled it out and chucked it still burning into the porch when they realised the door was open.
"This has really shaken us up. We cannot understand why someone would do this to us. As far as we know we have not upset anyone.
"I suppose in hindsight we can count ourselves lucky, particularly that I heard that noise.
"It is also fortunate that we took the carpet up in the porch a while ago and that there were only tiles down, otherwise the fire would really have gone up. As it is, our son is doing his best to repair things but it made a horrible mess and the smell of the fumes gave us headaches."
Mrs Pilkington said that the police had been marvellous in their handling of the crime, although house-to-house inquiries had so far not yielded any witnesses.
She said that their porch is visible from Manchester Road, which at 10.45pm on a Saturday evening would still have plenty of traffic and pedestrians going up and down it.
Det Con Paul Clayton of Wigan CID, said: "Had the occupants not discovered the fire and put it out we could be dealing with the murder of two innocent people.
"I am astonished that anyone would be prepared to target a couple in such an indiscriminate and gratuitous way and I am doing all I can to bring this offender to justice.
"If you know anything, regardless of how insignificant it might be, please do the right thing and call before this person strikes again."
Anyone with information is asked to call Wigan CID on 0161 856 5307, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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