A MOTHER has spoken of her fear that arsonists who destroyed her children’s trampoline would return to the family home and start another fire.

Emily Wallis said she was left scared and angry after the trampoline her two sons play on in the garden of their Newton Aycliffe home was torched on Sunday night.

Her partner Dean Forster, a 27-year-old carer, was getting a drink to take up to bed when he spotted the flames from the kitchen window.

His mother, who was visiting for the weekend because the couple held a gender reveal party to announce they are expecting a third son in October, shouted to the 24-year-old to call 999.

Miss Wallis said a crew from County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service were nearby dealing with another small deliberate fire in Burnhill Way and Mr Forster managed to put out the fire with pans of water before they arrived.

Sons James, six, and Dean, four, were asleep at the time of the blaze, at around 11.15pm on Sunday, and unaware of what had happened.

Miss Wallis, who is 17 weeks pregnant, said: “I heard Dean’s mother shouting to call the police and fire brigade and ran to the stairs, I could see the orange of the flames through the window of the front door.

“Thankfully the boys slept right through it.

“My partner was really angry and I was more scared, I kept thinking about if it had spread – it was next to an electricity box outside, a fence, Wendy house and two bins.

“And I was worrying about them coming back and starting another fire at our home, but the fire brigade don’t think we were targeted at all.

“The night before it happened we’d all been in bed by 7.30pm and asleep by 9pm so wouldn’t have spotted it so quickly and it could have been much worse.”

The mat and netting of the 10ft trampoline were destroyed beyond repair and the fire has scorched the ground it was standing on.

After sharing her experience on social media, a Newton Aycliffe woman called Clare Forster, who is unrelated to the couple, donated a trampoline and BMX bike her family no longer use to the boys and D&A Removals from the town transported it.

Miss Wallis added: “I put a message on Facebook and within minutes of it going up I had lots of messages from people who were angry and then offers of help.

“It is just shocking, I think they’ve just walked along a footpath than runs near our garden and seen the trampoline within reach over the fence and set it on fire.

“It is so cheeky and dangerous.

“I took the trampoline down and just told them it had been damaged by the wind so was broken but someone nice was giving them a new one.

“I don’t want the boys to be frightened by what happened.”

Police are aware of the incident.