Boy’s burning clothes ignited oil tank

A BOY whose clothes caught fire had a miraculous escape after the flames spread to an oil tank and an electricity station knocking out power in 1,000 homes.

Yesterday the mother of 14-year-old Paul Maxwell said her husband and a neighbour saved his life by ripping off his burning clothes as he fled a blazing garden shed.

However they were unable to stop the flames spreading to an oil tank at the rear of the Maxwell home.

Locals said there was pandemonium at the scene of the massive blaze which erupted in west Belfast on Monday night.

The fire, believed to have started when a cigarette ignited petrol, began in the shed behind the home of the Maxwell family in the Poleglass district of the city.

Mrs Maxwell said her son is lucky to be alive after being badly burned in the blaze. His condition was described as stable by the Royal Victoria Hospital.

A teenage girl was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.

After the fire spread to the oil tank, it exploded, spreading the blaze to a transformer unit in a nearby electricity sub station. Electricity supply to a thousand homes and businesses in the district was disrupted.

Mrs Maxwell said a friend of her son had been smoking outside the shed door when petrol ignited.

"His friend ran into the house screaming and said he (Paul) was on fire. His skin was falling from him. His dad, Dominic, started pulling the clothes off him and neighbours helped they have been brilliant.

"He's in a lot of pain but heavily sedated. He was a lucky wee boy."

Mrs Maxwell said Paul stored petrol in the shed to use in a strimmer to do gardening for neighbours. "He's a good wee worker," she said.

Electricity workers had to isolate power to the burning sub station before three fire appliances were used to put out the blaze, fire chiefs said yesterday.

Paul Butler, a Sinn Féin member in Poleglass, said: "The whole place was in pandemonium. It was well alight and even though the Fire Brigade were here quickly they couldn't put it out at first because of the oil.

"There were a couple of paramedics who live here that got to him fairly quickly or else it would have been worse."

Work to replace melted cables at the electricity sub-station begins today.