Woman dead after a fire tore through a house in Waverley
GRANDMOTHER of 23, Salma Yazigi, has died and her husband suffered smoke inhalation following a house fire in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, with one of their grandsons racing to the home to find his distraught grandfather outside the burning home.
NSW
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THE heartbreak was etched into the faces of family members today as they learnt a house fire had tragically claimed the life of a beloved grandmother.
Firefighters rushed to Salma Yazigi’s Waverley home after the blaze broke out about 6am today.
The house was well alight and the flames had spread to a neighbouring property.
They found the mother of seven trapped in a bedroom. Despite the efforts of emergency crews she could not be saved and was pronounced dead at the scene as shocked neighbours gathered in the street.
Anthony Mitry, one of Mrs Yazigi’s 23 grandchildren, lives in the same street. He was woken by sirens and ran to the burning home to find his distraught grandfather Louis had escaped.
“I raced down and saw my grandfather hysterical, so I tried to console him and tried to understand what was going on,” he said.
Mr Mitry described his grandmother as “a wonderful woman (with) a heart of gold”. He said she was “quite frail” but was “in a better place now”.
“She loves us all equally, no favourites, that’s how we’ll remember her,” Mr Mitry said. “Twenty-three grandkids, you’ve got to have a pretty big heart to love each and every one of them, and she did.”
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Mr Mitry said his grandfather, who was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, was being consoled by family members.
“He’s not coping very well at all. They took him straight to hospital, all the family are gathered around him.”
Mr Mitry said Mr Yazigi believed the fire may have started after Mrs Yazigi tried to turn on a heater in the lounge room.
“Whether she collapsed or not, we don’t know, her health wasn’t the best,” he said.
NSW Ambulance acting duty operations manager Paul Sweetland said paramedics were confronted with a “distressing” scene when they arrived at the scene.
“This is nothing that we ever want to go to,” he said.
“Paramedics obviously worked very hard at the scene to try and calm the patients.”
The fire burnt through the roof of the couple’s house and spread to the neighbouring house before it could be brought under control.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.