A HEATH End mum has told of her family’s shock at seeing their garden trampoline set alight by a suspected army flare.

Caroline Logan said the fire was only discovered because her daughter Erin, 17, looked out of the window as she drew the blinds at their house in Cranmore Gardens, at around 10pm on Thursday, January 27. It was put out by her quick-thinking son, Henry, 15, who grabbed a hose pipe to extinguish it after they rushed outside.

The blaze burned a hole in the bed of the trampoline and the surrounding protective netting, but Caroline fears that it could have been much worse if had gone undetected as the trampoline was next to a fence and the grass underneath it was well alight.

“It could have been very dangerous, if my daughter hadn’t seen it or if we’d been out because it could have set the fence alight,” she said.

At first Caroline thought the fire might have been caused by a Chinese lantern.

But when she examined charred remains found on the trampoline it appeared that they resembled a small parachute-like device that was found in the road nearby the following morning.

She posted pictures of the burnt material and the device on Facebook where users suggested it was a military flare.

Caroline heard what she thought was the sound of fireworks on the night of the fire and questions whether the ‘flares’ could have come from nearby army training sites. “My concern is that one of these could cause a serious fire,” she said.

The Herald contacted the Army at Aldershot with the photographs for investigation, but the paper had not received a response by the time it went to press.