Danny Hawkins recounts Gympie house fire

Ever since he was forced to watch in horror as his family home went up in flames rumours have swirled about the sinister motives behind the blaze. Now, Danny Hawkins has set the record straight.

Gympie boxer Danny Hawkins has recounted the moment he woke to find his family home ablaze.

It comes after Mr Hawkins sustained burns to his head, arms and hands as the fire tore through the home early on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. No-one else was injured.

He and his family had already endured a daylight ambush at same home in September, 2021.

Given the previous violence at the home, rumours swirled throughout the community as to whether the fire was an attempt on Mr Hawkins’ life, despite confirmation by authorities that it was not being treated as suspicious.

Now, he has recounted what happened that morning.

Speaking exclusively with the Gympie Times, he said he suspected the fire may have started by a candle.

The alarm was raised by his eldest daughter’s friend, who was staying with the family at the time.

Another family friend with a two-year-old baby were also staying in the home.

“I woke up with (my daughter’s) friend running into our room shouting ‘everybody get out of the house, there’s a massive fire!’,” he said.

He rushed to the girls’ room, where he discovered a curtain had caught alight and attempted to put it out, not aware of the inferno outside.

Suddenly, the timber wall beside the curtain caught alight.

“(It) was like something you would see in the movies,” he said.

Realising the danger he and his family were in, Mr Hawkins closed the bedroom door to try and contain the blaze.

The Hawkins family home was rendered unlivable after the devastating fire.

Then, he made sure everyone else was awake and out of the house.

He then returned to the rear of the house and attempted to open the back door, burning his fingers.

“I stepped back and I could hear all the crackling; things dropping and breaking on the ground,” he said.

“It was then I realised the back deck was pretty much alight.”

Mr Hawkins turned to join his family and friends out the front of their home, but as he rushed down the hallway, billowing smoke coming from their bathroom caught his attention.

“I thought maybe the fire was in there and I thought ‘maybe I could put it out’,” he said.

But as he opened the door, he was met with heat so intense it caused burns to his head, arms and hands.

The Hawkins family home was completely destroyed by a house fire in Gympie on 16 August 2022.

“I’ve never felt heat like it,” he said.

“I basically screamed, it was so painful.

Mr Hawkins then met the rest of the household in the front yard, before rushing to their neighbours to ring 000.

But by the time emergency services arrived, it was already too late. Everything was gone.

Anything not destroyed had been badly damaged by smoke.

Mr Hawkins said the feeling of watching the family home burn was “surreal”.

Danny Hawkins, pictured with wife Alicia, sustained burns to the top of his head, arms and hands as he tried to escape the blaze.

“None of us were crying, we just could not believe what we were seeing,” he said.

“I wasn’t even thinking how lucky we were to be alive, I was just thinking … ‘one minute you feel like your life is back on track and everything is going great and the next thing everything is burnt to the ground’.”

Mr Hawkins was taken to Gympie Hospital for the burns he sustained during the blaze.

He said he was “no hero” after the fire and owed everything to his daughter and her friend for raising the alarm.

The family had since temporarily moved in with friends, but Mr Hawkins said they were trying to remain positive.

“This ain’t gonna break us,” he said.

He was most proud of his children for their strength after losing everything, including his 10-year-old daughter’s childhood toys.

The Gympie community quickly banded together after news broke of the Hawkins’ family’s misfortune, with generous offers pouring in.

Mr Hawkins said he and the family were forever grateful for the help; the thought of which made him “emotional”.

A GoFundMe created to help the Hawkins Family has reached $1650 at the time of publishing.