Holywood, County Down: Family 'lucky to be alive' after deliberate fire

A man who escaped injury in an arson attack on his home in Holywood, County Down, has said he and his family are lucky to be alive.

Tom Foden and his wife led their four-year-old daughter to safety when a shed in the back garden of the house in Clarehill Lane was deliberately set alight on Saturday morning.

The fire spread to an oil tank and badly damaged the outside of the property.

A 33-year-old man has been arrested.

The shed contained furniture, children's toys, clothes and photographs, all of which were destroyed.

Mr Foden spoke to BBC's The Sunday News about what had happened.

"My wife woke up she heard a noise and wasn't sure what it was, she thought it was the delivery of oil we were due to get yesterday morning, but it was actually crackling on the baby monitor she could hear," he said.

"She looked out the window and the whole street was lit up orange.

"As we were running out the door, I looked out a side window and saw the whole shed was alight and it was probably about 30 seconds to a minute from catching on to the oil tank.

"The side window in the house blew out only a couple of minutes after we got out.

"Our daughter's window which looked out over the shed was a couple of minutes from blowing out as well."

Mr Foden said his daughter was too scared to return to the house at present.

He said any belongings that the family could not keep in their house were stored in the shed which was not insured.

Mr Foden said he believed it was a "random" attack.