Sheffield petrol bomb Basegreen: Shocked victim says fire attack was like scene from Die Hard

A charity worker has told how he felt like he was in a Die Hard movie as a firebomb took hold of his Sheffield flat.

Horrified Roy Bartram fled as the flames set his lounge alight, having only woken up from a nap on the settee a few minutes before what he described as a petrol bomb shattered his window.

The 54-year-old drugs and alcohol counsellor has yet to be rehoused by Sheffield Council after the incident, on Lister Avenue, Basegreen, which happened on December 21, and is currently having to commute to his job from his mother's home in Leeds.

The attack is being investigated by South Yorkshire Police.

He said: "The whole flat was ruined by the fire in the living room, after a petrol bomb came through the window.

"I got out, but it was like something out of Die Hard coming through the window.

"I was wrapping presents, and there was a big smash from the window. I then saw a petrol bomb flying through the window

"I had been asleep on the sofa near the window just before it happened, and had woken and moved to wrap some Christmas presents.

"I was unbelievably scared.

"The police said they thought it could be a case of mistaken identity."

He was put up by support services in a hotel the night the attack happened, but then had to move to his mum's house, some 35 miles away in Leeds.

He said he was still waiting for the council to offer him somewhere else to live nearly two months on from the incident.

He said: "I've lived in Sheffield for six years and had a flat - all I had there has gone up in smoke."

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He also lost his cat in the immediate aftermath of the incident as it ran off. But after returning to the area each night to look for it, he eventually found her 16 days later.

He said there had also been another window smashed in the property since the fire.

Pictures show the state of the house after the blaze, and the damage that it caused.

Douglas Johnson, chairman of Sheffield Council housing policy committee, said: "There is no doubt this will have been an incredibly scary incident for him and I sympathise with him enormously. The South East Neighbourhood team is doing all it can to help and support him. They have confirmed that the property remains secure, and patrols are continuing in the area.

"He has already been awarded a priority to be rehoused on our housing register. This naturally takes some time due to the pressure on social housing. As with anyone else in this situation, he has been offered temporary accommodation but has made his own arrangements."

South Yorkshire Police are continuing investigations into the attack.

The force said in a statement: "We were called on December 20, 2023, at 10.30pm, to reports of a fire at a property on Lister Avenue in Sheffield.

"It is believed that a large object was forced through a window and a room inside the property was set on fire.

"There were no injuries reported and the investigation is ongoing."