Woman, two children hurt as Coorparoo house destroyed by fire
Fire crews have faced delays in fighting a house fire in Brisbane overnight that left a woman with severe burns and two young children injured, after hydrants in the street were covered by recent road resurfacing.
QLD News
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Firefighters were forced to dig into bitumen in a frantic effort to unearth a hydrant and fight a blaze that left a woman and two children with injuries and put four families out of their homes.
A woman and two little girls were taken to hospital after the fire in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo overnight.
The fire broke out at the Kitchener St home about 3am, police say.
A woman in her 30s has severe burns to her legs and was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Her two little girls were also taken to hospital, a five-year-old with burns and a three-year-old girl with smoke inhalation.
She has now been released from hospital with her father, who was also treated for smoke inhalation.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Service Inspector Rohan Wilschefski said the Kitchener St fire hydrant was covered after the road was resurfaced “last week”.
“The pavement had gone over the top of the fire hydrants so when the crews arrived they were unable to find them or get access to them,” he said.
“So they had to go a lot further to get water,” reaching hoses around the block to the nearest, operational hydrant.
“It wasn’t until Urban Utilities came and told where the hydrants were located that we were able to dig them up and get access to those hydrants.
“It was certainly not a good situation.
“We were just lucky enough that everybody go out before we got here.”
A statement from the QFES this morning said the hydrant issue caused minimal delays and did not affect the overall operation.
Brisbane City Council also issued a statement this morning, saying the hydrants in Kitchener St were clearly marked with yellow paint.
“Council has contacted QFES and Urban Utilities to understand what happened in relation to accessing the hydrant,” the statement said.
Urban Utilities are working with QFES and Brisbane City Council to “understand the situation” that occurred this morning, Urban Utilities spokeswoman Michelle Cull said.
“We understand fire crews had difficulty accessing hydrants in Kitchener St, Coorparoo this
morning, following recent road resurfacing works,” she said.
The home was completely destroyed and neighbours were evacuated.
A crime scene has been established and investigations are under way.
This morning, the mangled remains of a crumbled roof was all the remained.
Two cars parked at the house have also been completely destroyed.
Both neighbouring properties - a unit complex and a house - were also damaged by the blaze, leaving three other families displaced.
“There are four families that have been impacted in four different places of residents,” Mr Wilschefski said.
“The Fire Service is working with the Chaplain service to try and find accomodation for those families.”
Neighbour Leaellen Vance said she was woken by the noise of the home’s roof giving way.
“I went out onto my veranda and there’s flames everywhere,” she said.
Then “screaming as though someone was in a lot of pain.”
“The eldest girl was sitting on the steps,” said said.
“She said, ‘I don’t have a house anymore ... Santa won’t be able to find me’.”
It comes less than a week after a man died in a house fire south of Brisbane.
Michael Luck, 62, perished in a fire at his home at Woodridge early on Sunday.
Further north, a home was destroyed by fire at Elimbah.
The blaze broke out about 3am, engulfing the property on Twin View Rd.
No-one was injured, but the house was “completely destroyed”, police say.
And on the Gold Coast, residents of a duplex at Miami escaped after the complex was extensively damaged by a fire that broke out about 9.15 last night.
The fire started in one of the Albion Ave residences, before spreading to the adjoining home.