Blind neighbour’s reaction to house fire in Garbutt

Bystanders have described the moment a house went up in flames in a Townsville street, with a blind neighbour helping fight the fire with a garden hose.

A single mother and her 10 children are now homeless after a fire engulfed their residence on Sunday night, the cause of which the police have deemed as non-suspicious.

Queensland Fire Department investigators have labelled the cause of the fire in Ramsay St, Garbutt as an accident.

The mother’s niece Lyndell Wyles said there had been assumptions as to the cause of the fire, including that it had been deliberately lit, as she described her aunt as a “single mother of 10 beautiful children”.

In a Facebook post she appealed to the community for essential items including children’s clothing and blankets, and said the family would be grateful for any support.

“My aunty and my cousins are now homeless, they have lost their beds to sleep in, their kitchen packed full of food, their TV for family movie night, their clothes as well as family photos,” she said.

“My aunty and my cousins did not deserve this, that was home.

“Now it’s burnt and everything inside is nothing but ash.”

Ms Wyles told the Bulletin the family had been contacted numerous times asking about the fire’s cause, but she urged the community to stop making presumptions and to leave it to emergency services to investigate.

The Ramsay St property remained cordoned off by police the morning after the fire in Garbutt. Picture: Chris Burns

“At the end of the day we don’t know until we know what is to blame,” she said.

“My aunty is a single mother, she loves those kids.

“There’s always food in the cupboard, the kids have showers, they’re in a routine, like they go to school every single day, she’s just getting the kids into daycare and that stuff.

“They (people) think just because my aunt is looking after them and she’s a single mother that she lets them do whatever they want to because the father figure’s not around and that, and I look at my aunty as a mother and a father.”

63-year-old neighbour Richard Willshire helped fight the fire in Ramsay St with his garden hose at the fence line only a metre from his front door until firefighters told him to get out.

“It was a scary moment, put it that way,” Mr Willshire said, who suffers from legal blindness and was unable to see the Townsville Bulletin reporter speaking to him at his front door where only the night before was a scene of chaos.

“We came out and saw the smoke, and then all hell broke loose, so to speak.”

A police officer watches over the scene at a house fire in Ramsay St, Garbutt, which was under control before 9pm.

Mr Willshire said there were fears the fire could spread quickly but that firefighters managed to control the blaze quickly, but he had been reluctant to leave because of fears for his home and property.

“It’s only a housing commission, but it’s still where we live,” he said.

“I was worried about it because we put airconditioning in, this is where we live.

“And I was trying to stop the fence from igniting, because it was damn hot, and it went through really quick.

“The pressure around is pretty crap, but what are you supposed to do though? And you can’t just sit there and watch it, because it was hot and it was coming.

“We could see the glass exploding, what have you, and it went that way through the carport and through the house itself and it was going towards the rear of the house.

“We said to the fireys when they showed up, ‘grab a hose and get out the back because it’s going to blow out the back shortly’, and it did.”

The fire broke out at about 6.10pm on Sunday, and firefighters were able to bring it under control before 9pm.

The Ramsay St property remained cordoned off by police the morning after the fire in Garbutt.

Another neighbour, who preferred not to be identified, said the family living in the house had lost all their belongings, and although he felt bad for their situation was relieved that they were unharmed.

He said the young children had been asleep when the fire started.

“All the kids are safe, she’s safe, material things you can replace,” he said.

“You can’t go out and get another kid.”

He had been drinking with a friend when he heard shouts on the street and assumed a crime was happening.

“We’re seeing a car drive past and someone yelled out something.”

He remembered thinking, “oh here we go, Garbutt, you know?”

But then he walked outside, saw the smoke, and went and grabbed a garden hose to help fight the fire.

The Ramsay St resident said he had not been afraid for his property.

“It was a freaky sort of thing to happen, but yeah, I was next door, not in the drama or nothing, I just went over to make sure they were okay.”

Originally published as Blind neighbour’s reaction to house fire in Garbutt