A single mum has claimed her four-year-old son could have been killed by the gas explosion that rocked Timperley Post Office last week – and has been left “traumatised” by the experience.
Emily Feldman, 23, lives in the one-bedroom flat above the Post Office on Stockport Road that was targeted by robbers in the early hours of last Wednesday.
Her son Leo’s bedroom is directly above the cash machine that was blown up in the attempted raid, and Emily said that had he not decided to sleep in her bed just two hours before, he “might not be here now”.
She said she was “completely left in the lurch” after the terrifying incident and is desperate to leave the flat she has lived in since March 2014.
Recounting the incident itself, she said: “It was like a gunshot going off, and at first I thought they were trying to get into my door, that’s how loud it was. The whole kitchen shook, everything fell off the shelves, glasses broke, crockery broke, all the cupboards came out and the floor dipped in.
Below: The Post Office hours after the incident, with the cash machine on the side of the building
“I was thinking ‘my God, what’s happened’. The fire alarm was going off and it was pitch black as all the electrics had gone. You couldn’t see anything for all the smoke.
“Then I heard the robbers outside saying ‘hurry up, we’ve got five minutes’.”
Emily and Leo were eventually able to get out of the flat after the fire and rescue service arrived 20 minutes later, but were not allowed back in to collect any belongings until 3 o’clock that afternoon.
Her employer, Iceland in Timperley village, gave her a week off but her attempts to find alternative accommodation – as the police had said it was not safe to stay in the flat – have been unsuccessful.
She claimed the council would not see her as it’s privately owned, while Trafford Housing Trust could only offer her a couple of nights in Rochdale. She does not have any family options either – her dad lives in Chester and her mum, who lives locally, does not have the space and is suffering from fibromyalgia. Leo’s father, meanwhile, looks after his son at weekends but lives in Stalybridge, and Emily does not drive.
Below: Emily and Leo by their front door, just yards from the cash machine that was blown up
In the end, after her landlord offered her two nights in a B&B, she decided to go away for a few days to a family caravan near Rhyl, but has now returned as she is due back in work on Thursday.
Emily, a former Wellington School pupil, said she is even more terrified after seeing the damage to the Post Office itself. “The landlord showed me downstairs and I wish I’d never ever seen it,” she added. “All the ceilings have caved in, so it only takes Leo to run across the floorboards and I’m worried the floor will give way.
“Paperwork was everywhere, the safe was on the floor and there were cracks in the walls. Because they didn’t get anything I’ll always be scared they will come back because they know they can do it, and I wonder whether my kitchen floor would be safe if it happened again?”
Below: Emily and Leo by the cash machine
She said her son has been left “traumatised” by the incident. “He jumps at any loud noises now and has not left my side since, even though he’s normally quite independent.
“He doesn’t want to stay here and has been so quiet. He’s very shouty at me, and he’s going up to people with his toy gun and saying ‘you’re the bad guy’ and shooting them. He just keeps saying he wants to go and live in the caravan because my house is broken. I have to stay with him until he falls asleep every night, and he hasn’t done that since he was one or two.”
She’s been told that her son may now need counselling.
“The local community have been nice and people have even left me cards at Iceland, but I just think there should have been more help,” she says. ” I can’t live here and I want to move on.”
The Post Office’s head office in London today told us there was still no reopening date for the Timperley branch.
