I have only just got round to checking the pictures – which have been seen around the world – of a young woman jumping from a window to escape a fire in Croydon during the recent riots.
I was puzzled by the version which dominated the front page of The Times on 9 August, which seems to show a pair of arms outstretched from the window behind her, giving her a push. All the stories said she had been completely on her own & had needed quite a lot of persuading to trust to the policemen below to catch her.
Pictures from other angles – available on the web – show quite clearly that they are not the arms of a human, but possibly some kind of gantry or piece of street furniture.
A report in today’s Times says that the application of a flame from a cigarette lighter to a sofa was all that it took to start the fire – a 33 year old man was caught in the act by a spectator with a mobile phone.
Another dispiriting story – this one from Salford – tells of an 18 year old who had been accused of setting fire to a store in Manchester, remanded in custody & named & shamed by the police on Twitter. While he was away his own flat was set alight – perhaps by someone who thought to teach him a lesson. He has however now been cleared of any wrong doing & presumably the council will have to find him somewhere else to live – if he had his own flat at that age the likelihood is that he had been in care.
