A desperate mother threw her nine month old son into the arms of his father from a 15ft window as a potentially deadly blaze ravaged their flat, it emerged yesterday.
Quick-thinking Rosie Coakley, 25, was trapped with son Oscar in the bedroom as fire ripped through the first floor flat.
Firefighters believe arsonists may be to blame because the fire is thought to have started outside the couple’s front door in Farcet, near Peterborough.
Oscar’s dad Dale Meachan leapt out of the living room window before pleading with desperate Rosie to hurl the toddler into his arms.
Dale, 23, then passed Oscar to a neighbour as Rosie leapt from the first floor window, breaking a vertebrae in her back.
The couple were woken from a deep sleep by a ”loud bang” outside their front door and Dale went to investigate.
He said: ”It was like a metal pole hitting the floor. I got up to go and see what it was and I saw smoke around the door.
”I opened the door and saw the flames, so I immediately shut it and grabbed my boy from his bedroom.
”The flames had engulfed the door, which I could see was melting, so I made the decision to get out of the home by the window.
”We had no choice because the fire had got through the door and into the hallway.”
The fire broke out around 10pm as the couple were asleep in their upstairs bedroom.
Dale race back upstairs and plucked Oscar from his bed and carried him to his mother before he leapt out of the living room window and called for Rosie to drop the toddler into
his arms.
He then rushed to a neighbour’s house to get a ladder to rescue stricken Rosie but found her slumped on the ground when he returned just minutes later.
Dale added: ”I saw the flames had come into the living room and the side window smashed from the intensity of the fire.
”I heard the fire brigade, so I ran back to the flat and saw Rosie lying on the ground.”
Rosie had fallen from the window trying to escape and landed on her back, breaking one of her vertebrae.
She was rushed to Peterborough District Hospital where her condition was yesterday described as ”comfortable”.
Firefighters then spent two hours dousing the blaze, which had torn through the ground floor of the building.
Dale and Oscar were given oxygen and taken to Peterborough District Hospital where they were later discharged.
He and Oscar are now staying with Dale’s mother Lesley Meachan after the flat was left gutted by fire.
He added: ”We are desperate to know what happened. It was really scary. One of the worst feelings of my life.”
Martin Boome, of Cambs Fire Service, said the cause of the fire is unknown but have not ruled out arson.
He said: ”It’s devastating for the family, particularly with a young baby as well. Nothing has been excluded form the investigation.”
Detective Inspector Mike Branston, of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said: ”This was an extremely frightening experience for this family and it’s important we establish how this fire started.”
