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These pictures show the dramatic moment when arsonists torched a Bath taxi office - while four women workers were inside.
Two teenagers have this week been jailed for the drug-fuelled attack which was a bungled attempt to take revenge on a city cabbie.
Police say it was a "miracle" that nobody was seriously injured or killed in the blaze at the Abbey Taxi rank at South Parade in August last year.
Petrol was poured into the hut and then lit, creating a fireball which wrecked the building.
Detectives have now revealed the tactics they used to catch the culprits within days of the incident - describing their strategy as a combination of old-fashioned detective work and modern technology.
CCTV footage was a crucial part of the investigation, allowing police to identify 19-year-old Benjamin Handley and his 15-year-old accomplice very quickly.
The two teenagers were this week jailed for a total of seven-and-a-half years at Bristol Crown Court.
DC Wayne Sumsion said it was amazing no one had been injured in the fire.
"This incident could have so easily turned into a murder investigation – it is a complete miracle that the four women inside the taxi office escaped unhurt from such a severe fire.
"On that night, the two offenders showed no concern whatsoever about the fact that they were about to put four innocent people's lives at risk.
"The public have shown the police continued support in helping us to identify the two responsible and bring them to justice. Our thanks go out to them."
Det Sgt Neil Beament added: "This was very much a case that was solved by a mixture of modern technology and old-fashioned police work.
"The use of CCTV cameras and forensic work thankfully led to the two offenders being caught very quickly.
"The attack took place on a busy afternoon and there was a lot of people about. At the time a lot of people made themselves known to the police and we had some very useful people come forward."
The chairman of Abbey Taxis John Innerd welcomed the prison sentences and said the attack had almost destroyed his company.
He said: "They have got what they deserve.
"This was an absolutely terrifying experience for the staff and it is unbelievable that anybody could do such a thing.
"It sent our company into freefall and set us back quite a long way. It did a lot of damage to the company, not just to the staff, although that was a very distressing thing for us, but they also destroyed the taxi building."
The attack happened at 6.30pm on the evening of August 16 in broad daylight and on a busy street.
A green petrol can was left at the scene of the crime and detectives immediately checked CCTV tapes at nearby petrol stations including Sainsbury's at Green Park.
A police officer instantly identified Handley as a man buying £6 worth of petrol at around 6pm in a green can that his accomplice had stolen minutes earlier.
Council CCTV footage throughout the city then allowed the police to track the teenagers' journey as they made their way to South Parade to carry out the premediated attack.
Cameras at the Abbey building filmed the 15-year-old pouring petrol around the entrance of the hut, while Handley diverted a member of staff by pretending to enquire about a taxi.
In dramatic footage from cameras inside the control centre, flames are seen to rise from the entrance in front of the frightened staff, before a fireball explodes into the main room.
Luckily the women managed to escape, uninjured but shaken, out of a back door into the street.
The police also had a breakthrough when a member of the public came forward with valuable information about a possible motive for the attack.
The attackers had been in a group of men who had used a taxi earlier in the day and had been in an altercation with the driver.
When they were dropped off in Oldfield Park, a neighbour saw the taxi drive off at high speed and thought the cabbie had been driving dangerously.
He mentioned to the group that the taxi could have been an Abbey vehicle and thought no more of it until he saw the devastation in the city centre later that evening.
Det Sgt Beament said: "This man thought there might be some connection so he came into the police station and let us know the details, just in case it was linked in any way.
"This gave us our timings and from that we tracked down the original taxi driver and the pieces started to fit together."
Another member of the public also told the police about a pair of gloves that had been abandoned near the scene and forensic teams