By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A mother has desperately broken a window to try to save her five-year-old son who died in a tragic house fire in Leonard Street Dandenong on Sunday night, 26 July.
Inspector Peter Koger of Greater Dandenong Crime Command said the non-suspicious fire likely involved a heater in the lounge room just before 10pm.
Metres away, the 29-year-old mother of three was cooking in the kitchen when she noticed the couch and then the room “engulfed in flames”, Insp Koger said.
She and a male boarder scrambled her eight-year-old son and three-year daughter outside to safety.
They tried to retrieve the five-year-old, who was sleeping in his bedroom.
But the “flames were too great” to get inside, Insp Koger said.
“The fire had taken off and the house was engulfed.”
In her desperation, the mother suffered cuts to her hands as she tried to break in through the bedroom window.
The boarder was significantly burnt as he valiantly tried to defy the inferno.
He was taken to The Alfred hospital in a stable condition.
The mother and two children were also treated in Dandenong Hospital for smoke inhalation.
The boy’s father was out running errands at the time. He returned home about 10pm to find ambulances and fire engines and his home immersed in flames.
“Can you imagine it?” Insp Koger said.
“It’s your worst nightmare. Our heart goes out to him. It’s terribly sad.
“It’s just tragic for the family and the whole community.”
Friends say the family of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees moved from Perth several weeks ago to be closer to Melbourne’s Tamil community.
Neighbour Mahmoud barely knew the family but risked his own safety to help.
He said he heard a woman scream, smelt smoke and saw three-metre flames from the building.
He wrapped himself in a blanket to brave the intense heat and smoke, and ran to the backyard.
“I was hoping to find the children in case they ran away into the yard.”
Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre deputy chairperson Wicki Wickiramasingham said Dandenong’s vast refugee community was shocked.
“The family survived war, cyclones and they came all the way from Sri Lanka by boat. It’s so very bad for them – a family of young children.
“In Sri Lanka they feared for their life. I’m just really, really sad for them.”
He urged the community to come to the aid of the family.
Greater Dandenong councillor Rhonda Garad said the distraught family was now in desperate need for housing, goods and grief counselling.
“This is a tremendously sad event.
“We will look for further help. They can’t go back to the house – they need immediate short term housing, they’ve lost everything they own.”
