A young woman who went back into her burning home after an arson attack to rescue her younger brothers and sister last week said the family has lost everything and are now homeless.
Amanda Uwase, who is studying a Masters in DCU, said the family does not know why a petrol bomb was thrown into the home in Dublin on 30 December, but suspect the attack could have been racially motivated.
Gardaí believe the attack is a case of mistaken identity and the family acknowledged that certain criminals who live in the area could have been the target.
Ms Uwase, 23, said she was in the sitting room of her home on Creston Avenue in Finglas watching a French programme on television with her younger sister, when they heard a loud bang from the kitchen at around 11pm.
When they got there, the kitchen was on fire from what appeared to have been a petrol bomb thrown through the window.
They both ran and Ms Uwase rang emergency services but said she was so incoherent and frightened she could not speak.
She then told her younger sister to run and get help, but she went back into the house after she realised her mother, her two younger brothers, aged 11 and 14, and her 16-year-old sister were still inside.
She said she ran past the fire on the stairs and upstairs to the second-floor children's bedroom where she found them panicking, terrified and in shock.
After a few minutes, they managed to break one of the bedroom windows and could hear neighbours shouting at them to jump.
The young girl jumped from the second floor, followed by her two younger brothers who were badly injured in the fall.
Ms Uwase jumped out last onto a mattress brought by neighbours but suffered burns to her arms and body.
She said she wanted to get her mother out too, but the fire was too hot for her to run up to the third-floor bedroom and her mother was rescued by the fire brigade.
Her mother had come home from a 12-hour shift as a carer and had fallen into a deep sleep.
The children did not know their mother had been brought out alive until much later because they had already been taken to hospital.
Their mother spent a week in intensive care and remains in hospital.
The family lost its home and is currently in emergency accommodation.
Ms Uwase said they cannot cook and are spending their savings buying takeaway food every day.
They remain emotionally traumatised. She said she becomes frightened at the sound of a fire alarm while her mother is worried that someone may be "after" them.
Ms Uwase also said she had to pay for her own counselling because she would "rather heal now than heal from it later".
The family returned to the fire-damaged house this week, but all their clothes and shoes are gone.
They managed to salvage her laptop for college and "a few things" like their passports.
They also found the car keys for the family car which was parked outside.
The kitchen, living room and bedrooms are "destroyed" and the house has been boarded up.
"We are so lost," Amanda said, adding "we need support, everything's completely gone".
The family said the attack could be connected to people in the area "we would call criminals" but also believes it could be racially motivated.
"We are very much peaceful people, we don't bother anyone, we try and help people"
The house was previously attacked and the windows broken in July of last year.
She also said none of the family members have ever been in trouble in their lives.
Her father was at work the night of the attack and her mother works as a carer.
"We are very much peaceful people, we don't bother anyone, we try and help people," she said.
"My family are devout Christians. My parents don't drink and we have been brought up to always treat people with respect.
"We don't know why this happened to us, we didn't do anything to deserve this," she said.
"This wasn't our fault, but we don't feel safe to go back to the area knowing that these people who did this could be walking among us, in the shops, when we're driving, in the park."
A fundraiser to help the family has been set up on website chuffed.org.
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