'Smoke was so thick I couldn't see my parents': Survivor of fatal West Midlands arson attack tells court of the moment his family home caught fire
A survivor of a fatal arson attack at a Wednesbury family's home has told jurors of the moment they realised the house was ablaze.
Giving evidence on Tuesday (February 3) prosecution witness Carl Edwards told Wolverhampton Crown Court how his brother Mark, who had been downstairs, woke him up screaming in the early hours of May 11 last year at the house in Holyhead Road in Wednesbury.
"My brother opened my bedroom door and screamed 'fire'. I went straight to my parents' bedroom. When I opened the door I could see they were trying to get out of bed. They were both a bit deaf and weren't wearing their hearing aids.
"They were taking their time and my dad said he was looking for his glasses. Mark was standing at the door. I told him to bring them into my bedroom. The windows were always kept open by about two inches, so I opened up mine a bit more. I thought I could've got them out of my bedroom window because there was a flat roof below it, where the bathroom was.
"But when I turned round black smoke had filled the room and I couldn't see anything. I never saw the fire. I realised I just had to get out through the window," Mr Edwards, aged 60, told the court.
