A BOLTON family has been left too terrified to sleep after arsonists targeted their home.

Firebugs pushed a discarded couch, which the family says was due to have been picked up from the front garden, against the living room window and gas meter and set it alight.

Single mum Sonia McGuinness, aged 33, and her two children, Aaron, aged 11, and seven-year-old Hannah, were asleep when the fire was lit in the early hours of Wednesday, May 25.

A dog walker saw the blaze and alerted the fire brigade, but the smoke and flames at the front of the Freshfield Avenue, Great Lever, home were too fierce for the family to escape via the front door and they were unable to get out through the back garden because of a locked gate.

Miss McGuinness said: "We just had to stand at the upstairs bedroom window because we couldn't get out.

"Eventually one of my neighbours, Teresa Heyes, made a hole in her fence and we managed to run through the house and out the back to safety, but it was terrifying. My little girl thought we were going to die."

Since the fire, which melted the gas meter, exposing a gas pipe, Miss McGuinness's children have been too afraid to sleep in the house.

She said: "They keep reliving what happened and say they can see sparks at the window.

"They just can't sleep and end up having to come in with me because they are so terrified.

"I just can't believe someone would do something like this. This is obviously a family house with children in it.

Miss McGuinness had nothing but praise for her neighbours, the fire brigade and the police who rushed to the scene after seeing smoke billowing across Plodder Lane.

She said: "I just can't thank the people who helped us enough, they were absolutely brilliant and I dread to think what would have happened if people hadn't been so good, I really appreciate what they did."

Transco sealed off the gas pipe to the house after the attack.

l Officers are appealing for anyone who saw anyone acting suspiciously in the area in the early hours of the morning to contact them as soon as possible on 0161 856 5746 or Crimestoppers on free phone 0800 555111.