‘I thought the whole place would explode’: Heroic teen saves family from fire

“We tried to get out the front and couldn’t,” recalled Melbourne mum, Sheree. 

A Melbourne family has recalled the horrifying moment their Port Melbourne apartment started filling with smoke after an alleged arson attack in a nearby shop.

It was 1.30AM Monday when a sleeping 16-year-old realised their Thomastown apartment was filling with smoke.

Upstairs were her mum and little sister, sleeping in their bedrooms. Without hesitation, the heroic teenager jumped into action to save her family. 

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Sheree and her youngest daughter, Gia, managed to escape the flames. Picture: 7News

“It was a nightmare, to be honest”

“She quickly woke me up, and I was in a panic,” recalled mum Sheree to the Herald Sun. 

“We’ve got a fryer, and I thought that we had the fire in our place.”

RELATED: Two children rushed to hospital after firebomb destroys Melbourne hair salon

The smoke, at first, wasn’t “too bad” upstairs. However, it didn’t take long for it to begin travelling upstairs. 

“When I went downstairs, the shop was full of smoke, and I couldn’t see what was going on,” Sheree said. 

Without her husband there, Sheree and her two kids were left on their own, trying to determine where the smoke was coming from. 

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Little did they know that the hair salon Infinitii, which is located near their upstairs apartment, had just been destroyed after a Porsche had driven through the shop window, setting alight and emitting smoke, which began entering the innocent family’s home. 

Speaking to 7News, the Melbourne mum recounted her next steps, clouded by the billowing smoke.  

“We tried to get out the front and couldn’t,” she said. “There was just a lot of smoke.” 

The family grabbed what they could, dressed in their PJs, and escaped the property. “It was a nightmare, to be honest,” Sheree said. 

The smoke was so intense that her youngest daughter, Gia, was terrified something worse could happen. “I thought this whole place was going to explode," she said. 

RELATED: 'Hero' neighbour helped save kids from Sydney inferno

A Porsche was driven into the Thomastown hair salon. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Thankfully, the kids weren’t injured in the incident but were taken to the hospital for observation from possible smoke inhalation. 

While the Melbourne family were lucky to make an escape, Sheree said it's only a matter of time before an innocent bystander gets seriously injured or killed.

“We are very lucky to have survived this,” mum Sheree said. “There are going to be lives that are going to be taken because of people’s poor choices." 

The Port Melbourne arson attack was one of three that hit Melbourne that night, including a tobacco shop in Cairnlea and an apartment in Thomastown, which is linked to underworld figure and boxer Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim. It is the 97th arson attack in Melbourne since October 2023.

Police are currently investigating whether the three arson attacks are linked. 

Originally published as ‘I thought the whole place would explode’: Heroic teen saves family from fire