‘Get out of the house, get the kids!’
Afamily with five children and two pet chihuahuas had a narrow escape when fire destroyed their house — and a new birthday bike. The Smith family, of Paremoremo, were relaxing downstairs on Saturday night when they heard strange noises upstairs.
“We were sitting in the lounge and we heard what sounded like rain falling,” said Samantha Smith.
“It’s a multi-level house . . . and we just heard that coming from the upstairs and it was like: ‘Why is the shower on?’
“My mum and my husband went upstairs to see if someone was there. From downstairs, I just heard my mum screaming in the most terrifying voice: ‘Fire! Everybody get out!’”
Smith grabbed a fire extinguisher and gave it to her stepfather, who ran it up to his son-in-law. But it was too late.
“By the time my husband grabbed the fire extinguisher, he turned around and the fire was just way too big to even try to put out.
“He gave it a go but it was just out of control at that point. They just yelled out: ‘Everybody get out of the house, get the kids!’”
The children are aged from 4 to 15 years and one of the boys, Chase, was celebrating his eighth birthday on Sunday. But his birthday present
— a new bike — was found completely charred.
“By the time we got out of the house . . . we looked back and the whole top level was just roaring,” Smith said. “All you could hear was cracking, shattering, smashing and banging.
“By 9.20pm, the whole [top] level was gone — just ash — and the bottom level was just one pool of debris, water and soot.”
It was only then the family noticed
their two chihuahua dogs were missing.
As firefighters fought to control the blaze, a plea was made for crew members to check the back deck, where the dogs usually were inside a basket.
They were later found, alive, inside the basket and under a blanket, by the Auckland Operational Support volunteer fire brigade.
“One of our members went up and, one by one, passed the dogs down
to the arms of greatly relieved owners,” staff said.
Members of the local community have rallied to help the family, who are staying with friends. A Givealittle page has been set up to help them. They did not have insurance.
Smith thanked everyone who had offered support, both financially and emotionally: “The community has been incredible. Thank you so much.”
The family had been renting and are looking for a new home.