Neighbours tried to get to Emily in the back bedroom by putting a ladder up at the back of the house. Meanwhile a passing motorist had alerted the fire brigade on their mobile phone and the firefighters broke down the front door and managed to rescue Emily from her bedroom. All three of the family members were taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital where Emily died of smoke inhalation. Her mother and brother’s injuries were so severe that they were transferred to a specialist unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire. Katie and Zach were seriously ill after the fire and both underwent surgery for their burns. Zach was able to leave hospital a few weeks later and was looked after by relatives. Katie finally left hospital just over a month after the attack. Four hundred people were interviewed in the first few months of the investigation. Thames Valley Police stated that the ‘calculated and pre-planned’ arson attack was a deliberate attempt to murder Katie Salvini and her children. Petrol had been poured through the letterbox of the family’s front door and then set alight. On the day of the attack, police closed off part of Hemdean Road and a mobile incident room was set up in the street. Police interviewed neighbours and searched gardens, among the items they were looking for was a can of flammable fluid. Two men were arrested and held for questioning over the weekend, they were later released without charge. Mrs Salvini had reported to police that her telephone cable had been cut two weeks previously, two men had been questioned then but released without charge. A few weeks after the attack, police appealed for two men to come forward. A neighbour saw them walking down Hemdean Road and then run back to a blue car at the time of the attack. Both men were described as Asian with one being in his 20s and the other in his 40s. Police were keen to speak to them in the hope they had seen the arsonist. A man was arrested on 17 June, held overnight and then released without charge. In July 1997, police issued an unusual artist’s impression of a ‘man without a face’, which was based on a description given to them by two witnesses who were not close enough to see his facial features. They saw the man at the junction of Hemdean Road and Victoria Road, yards from the Salvini home at 4.40 am, shortly before the fire. He was described as being between 5ft 8in and 5ft 11in with short dark hair.