Bowen family’s home destroyed in blaze after hospital trip

A Queensland mum has told of the horror of watching video footage of her family home being destroyed by fire via a security camera while she sat inside an emergency department with her injured son.

Alison Hobbs, Luke Williams and Ms Hobb’s three children Tess, Riley and Will, were “left with only the clothes they were wearing at the time” when their rental home “burnt to the ground” on Saturday, June 10, at Mt Dangar in the Bowen region. Picture: Facebook

A Bowen mum sat inside a hospital’s emergency department as she watched a video of a fire turning her home and her family’s possessions into ash.

Despite having lost all their worldly possessions, Alison Hobbs says she is “just grateful” her family was safe when the devastating blaze tore through their farm rental at Mt Dangar.

Ms Hobbs said her children Tess, Riley and Will had been helping her partner Luke Williams load up the ute to go pig hunting on the afternoon of Saturday, June 10 when Luke accidentally squashed her “little fella’s fingers”.

She and the children quickly left to go to hospital with Luke following 10 minutes later.

Twenty minutes after that, the neighbour called to say “Where are you? … Your house is on fire.”

Their home’s security camera was recording the blaze and uploading a video to the cloud.

“We have that five minutes worth of security footage where you can see the smoke breaking out, you can hear the glass breaking and the smoke alarms going off,” Ms Hobbs said.

With firefighters and paramedics on scene, Ms Hobbs stayed with her son in the hospital.

“Luke changed directions and went back home, he literally got home to a burning house,” she said.

“I’m just grateful none of us were inside, everything we own is replaceable, we are not.”

Alison Hobbs, Luke Williams and Ms Hobb’s three children Tess, Riley and Will, were “left with only the clothes they were wearing at the time” when their rental home “burnt to the ground” on Saturday, June 10, at Mt Dangar in the Bowen region. Picture: Facebook

Just hours after the inferno razed their home, the family sought reprieve at Ms Hobbs parents house in Ingham.

They collected clothing donations from friends, and “sat down and wrote lists of what we would need to regroup”.

Sunday was spent buying the bare essentials so the children could go to school as usual, and by Monday afternoon they were back home, albeit in a camping van parked beside the ruins.

“It’s not much but it’s ours,” Ms Hobbs said, adding it gave them access to power, sewage and water, with the property owners “amazing human beings” as were others who had offered help.

The family have since moved switched into a caravan and “don’t really know what’s next”.

“Our normal everyday routine doesn’t actually look any different,” Ms Hobbs said.

“Our priority was to make the kids life as normal as possible.

“They’re absolute troopers, they are so resilient, I’m so proud of them.”

Ms Hobbs’ employers, Corrsafe Training owners Rebecca and Garry Matthias, have started a GoFundMe to help the family recover.

“Your donations … are a lifeline that helps them start anew,” Ms Matthias wrote.

“The funds raised will be used to secure another family rental home, acquire essential household items such as a fridge, lounge, beds, television, clothing essentials, kitchen appliances, everything a house needs.

“Every dollar will bring them closer to restoring a sense of stability and normalcy.”

The GoFundMe which has a target of $25,000 has as of noon Tuesday raised almost $2500.