A four-year-old boy who perished in a house fire has been remembered as a ‘beautiful, happy-go-lucky kid’, as harrowing footage of the frantic attempts to rescue him emerged.
Emergency services were called to the Carnoustie Gardens home in the Mandurah suburb of Meadow Springs, south of Perth, around 1.50pm on Sunday.
Firefighters were told by panicked neighbours that a four-year-old boy was trapped in a room at the back of the property that was already engulfed in flames.
Two older siblings at home at the time managed to escape, while their parents were out Christmas shopping with three other siblings.
The boy, who was one of eight siblings, was rushed to Peel Health Campus where he sadly died.
CCTV captured his seven-year-old sister making a frantic dash to safety as the fire began to take hold with her 16-year-old brother closely behind.
The teen then tried to race back inside to rescue his little brother, but was forced back by the fierce.
Neighbours who also rushed to the home were also overcome by the intense heat and smoke they described as ‘hell on earth’.
A four-year-old boy was tragically killed in a house fire three days out from Christmas
CCTV shows firefighters racing into the home as the boy’s shocked siblings and neighbours watch on from the street
Firefighters were seen arriving at the scene and racing into the burning home as the boy’s shocked siblings and neighbours helplessly watched on from the street.
Crews managed to drag the boy out unresponsive shortly before the building collapsed.
Neighbour Loretta Westcott told Daily Mail Australia that the little boy was the same age as her granddaughter.
‘We would see him playing out the front in the paddling pool and playing with the hose,’ she said.
‘He was a happy-go-lucky, beautiful, healthy little boy.’
Ms Westcott, 51, her husband and her four children were among the first on the scene after noticing smoke coming out the front door.
‘My husband thought that perhaps one of the kids had burnt something when they were cooking and we might be able to help them get out,’ she said.
‘At that stage, two of the older children were out the front of the house.
‘One of them (a teenage boy) had the garden hose. He was trying his hardest to extinguish the fire.
‘But by that stage, it gone from just a little bit of smoke to billowing black smoke coming out the door in a matter of seconds and he was telling me that the child was in the back room.’
They tried to fight the inferno with a fire extinguisher but it was raging fiercely and they could not get around the back.
‘We were just all yelling as loudly as we could, ‘go to the back door, go out the back, go out the back, get out the back,’ Ms Westcott said.
A young boy has died and two other children are being treated for smoke inhalation after a horrific house fire in Mandurah just days before Christmas (pictured)
‘We don’t know if he heard us, we could hear the tiles and the windows were cracking.
‘It was just starting to make a hell of a ruckus.’
She added that firefighters did everything they could to save the little boy.
‘They managed to get out of the back and a few seconds later someone came out with him, and the first thing they did was dunking in a kiddie pool, which was under the patio,’ Ms Westcott added.
‘They were doing CPR to the best of their ability. I was holding part of the blanket to cover him from the sun.
‘And I was talking to him, saying ‘hang in there, come back to us, mate. Mum and dad need you, Santa wants to see you’.
‘Anything that I could think of, but to hear a voice, to hear his name, to associate with the fact that someone knew him, to try and get him to fight.’
‘At that stage, they did have a heartbeat but he was not breathing.
Ms Westcott said the first responders were ‘doing everything they possibly could’.
‘It was very obvious that he had smoke inhalation. He had a lot of black marks around his mouth,’ she said.
Ms Westcott said the home was ‘completely destroyed’.
The family-of-ten now faces Christmas without their little brother or a home to live in.
The boy’s sister and brother were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation but have since been discharged.
It took about 40 minutes for fire crews to get the blaze under control, but not before it destroyed the home and collapsed its roof (pictured)
‘They are now facing the overwhelming task of rebuilding their lives from scratch,’ a GoFundMe page, set up by the child’s grandmother, Teresa Heslewood.
‘I’m raising funds to help her and her family in this horrible situation that no one should have to go through.
‘This is a heartbreaking time for them, and they urgently need support for basic essentials like clothing, food, and temporary housing, funeral expenses, as well as help to start over.’
The GoFundMe page has already raised almost $28,000 within hours.
It’s understood that detectives are probing the theory that the boy may have been playing with a cigarette and lighter before the blaze took hold.
‘We would just like to remind our community members to please be mindful of playing with matches and always ensure they have a working smoke alarm that will help get those occupants of the house out early when there is a fire,’ Department of Fire and Emergency Services district officer Andrew Seuren told reporters.
An investigation into the fatal blaze is underway. A report will be prepared for the coroner.
The blaze is not being treated as suspicious.
Investigators remained at the scene on Monday scouring through the gutted rubble.
The blaze took 40 minutes for firefighters to get under control as temperatures soared to 40C.
‘The whole roof has collapsed down and every room has been involved by fire,’ Mr Seuren said.
‘The house fire was too intense for even the public to get close to when (firefighters) arrived.’
The fire has rocked the close-knit community.
‘(It’s) so close to Christmas and it’s not even the home, it’s just the safety, like it’s someone’s poor baby,’ neighbour Sarah Benton said.
‘There was just so much black smoke coming out and over, it was really thick.’
Another neighbour told The West they had tried to help catch a dog who fled from the burning home.
It’s understood that two cats are feared to have also died in the blaze.
Police are working to support the grieving family.
‘Losing anyone, especially a child, can be confronting for anyone but as police officers that’s what we do and we’re here to make sure the family are very well supported,’ Detective Constable Tiarna Eades said.
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