Hero dad helps sole fire survivor
Car horn wakes one man but two others die in early morning Hillpark home blaze
Aman driving past a fatal house fire in South Auckland yesterday has told of the moment he helped the only survivor get out of the building. Two people died in the blaze that engulfed a property in Hillpark at 6.55am.
Jonathan Asafo beeped his car horn and helped a man get out of the house while the fire was still raging.
“To be able to save one life is better than losing three.”
Asafo was taking his son to daycare when he saw the flames in the Freshney Place home.
“I quickly reversed back and drove right up to the driveway. The first thing I did was beep the horn to alert everybody.”
Asafo got out of his car and alerted the neighbours next door, for fear that the flames would spread to their property. Then he ran to the back of the ablaze house, looking for anyone who may need help.
“By the time I got around to the back, the survivor was making his way through the side door. So I quickly came back to the front, checking that he was okay and asking him if there’s anybody else in the house with him.
“He said he had two other mates that are upstairs. They unfortunately didn’t make it.”
Asafo said the man who got out was aged in his 20s and very shaken — and kept referring to his friends who were upstairs.
“He said it was the [sound of the car] horn and the smoke that got him out — and he happened to be the only one sleeping downstairs.”
The man was taken to Middlemore Hospital in a serious condition.
Asafo described the severity of the fire when he arrived.
“By the time I pulled up, the doors, the window frames had all melted off. It was so bright inside the house that you could see the frames of the furniture.
“That’s how bad it was.”
Asafo said his 3-year-old son remained in their vehicle.
“He was a bit scared.” Asked if he was okay, Asafo said he was more sad than shocked.
“I really had hoped we would’ve been able to save the other two guys. But to be able to save one life is better than losing three.”
Brendan Irwin, assistant commander for Manukau Fire and Emergency, said they responded to multiple calls from the public about a house fire in Freshney Place. Firefighters were met with a “well-involved” blaze.
“Sadly, I can confirm there is two deceased people at this property.”
Irwin said fire investigators were working with police to determine the cause of the fire. Asked if there were any working fire alarms at the property, Irwin said he did not know.
Neighbour Rowena Knill was lying in bed shortly before 7am when she heard what she thought might have been the recycling truck.
By the time I pulled up, the doors, the window frames had all melted off. It was so bright inside the house that you could see the frames of the furniture. That’s how bad it was.
Jonathan Asafo
“I started hearing popping and glass breaking. But I couldn’t hear a truck, so I got up and opened the curtain to see the fire.”
She called fire crews at 6.54am, she said, and could hear a car beeping its horn — and assumed someone was trying to alert the people inside the house involved.
“It happened within minutes,” she said of the speed of the spread of the fire.
Knill, whose family have lived on the street for about 11 years, said the family at the house involved were also long-term residents.
“They’ve got a big family. We’d see them sitting on the porch and someone playing the guitar outside.”
She said there was an older woman who lived at the home and often had grandchildren visit.
“We don’t know how many people actually lived there. But she used to wave and say hello.”