Russell Island fire: Landlord charged after father and his five children are killed in devastating house blaze

A woman has been charged over a devastating blaze that killed five young children and their father on Russell Island last year. 

Wayne Godinet, 34, died along with his four-year-old twins Kyza and Koa, his three-year-old son Nicky, and his stepsons Zack, 11, and Harry, 10 in an inferno at their home on Russell Island, south east of Brisbane, in August last year. 

The children’s mother, Samantha Stephenson, 28, and her sister were able to escape the fire. 

The landlord, a 61-year-old woman from Tweeds Heads, has been issued a notice to appear at Cleveland Magistrates Court on March 26 over the property’s alleged lack of compliant smoke alarms. 

The blaze was so intense firefighters were only able to pick through the remains of the house in the late afternoon on Sunday after battling it from 6.18am 

She was not present when the fire occurred. 

‘Detectives continue to investigate the fire and a final report is expected to be submitted to the Coroner in the near future,’ a spokesperson for Queensland Police said. 

The blaze was so intense it razed that it raised the property to the ground and destroyed two other adjoining properties. 

Mr Godinet returned to the burning building in a bid to rescue the children but perished inside when the second storey collapsed. 

Roses and gerberas were left against a charred piece of masonry at the site of the tragedy 

Neighbours recalled seeing Ms Stephenson running outside screaming ‘my children, my children’ as her partner raced back into the inferno to rescue the five boys sleeping upstairs. 

A heartbroken Ms Stephenson previously urged every parent to ‘check your smoke alarms and hold your babies’.

One of her sisters later attended the site to lay three roses and three gerberas against a charred piece of masonry in memory of the victims. 

Dozens of Mr Godinet’s travelled from New Zealand to paY tribute to the victims with a powerful Haka.