Penelope Travers: Mandurah mother left with horrific burns after home and car firebombed twice in one week

A Mandurah mother has described the horrifying moment she watched her own skin “melt” after being caught in a firebombing attack that destroyed her car and damaged her home. Penelope Travers says she was woken at about 4.30 in the morning on October 6 by strange noises coming from the carport at her Greenfields property. “It just didn’t sound right so I checked my security cameras and there was my carport on fire,” Ms Travers said. “Someone had thrown a firebomb that had hit the car window and bounced off and then set everywhere — everything else alight.” Armed with a kettle full of water, and with her two children still in bed fast asleep, the single mother raced outside to extinguish the blaze — a frantic decision that would have catastrophic consequences. “I didn’t realise that the flames had spread up the shelf to some spray paint cans which were at the same height as my head,” she said. “As I was pouring the water — it was a massive explosion and a ball of fire and I just — it was the immediate searing pain and seeing the skin melt that I just knew I was in trouble. “My neighbours said it wasn’t the explosion that woke them but my screaming. I was scared for my life.” The flammable gas from the canisters and the boiling hot paint inflicted devastating burns to more than 25 per cent of Ms Travers’ body, completely covering her face, chest, and down her left arm and leg. She was rushed to Fiona Stanley Hospital and spent hours in surgery receiving skin grafts, followed by 17 days bed-bound and mummified in bandages. “I lost the entire skin top on my left foot — I’m struggling with mobility, I can’t work to support my two kids, my life has completely changed,” Ms Travers said. “I didn’t realise how bad the burns were at first until the nurses told me that I was the worst case on the hospital ward.” To add insult to injury, a week later as the mother remained in hospital recovering, the arsonist returned to her home and set fire to the car again completely destroying it. “That was just a d... move,” she said. “My 16-year-old was home on her own and I just can’t bring myself to think about what could have happened to her if the dog didn’t bark and wake her up.” A WA Police spokesperson confirmed Mandurah Detectives were treating the fires as “suspicious” and an investigations was underway. Anyone with any information, CCTV, mobile phone, or dash-cam footage are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or lodge a report online. A fundraiser to help Ms Trevors pay for her medical and living expenses has already raised thousands of dollars in donations.