Kara Atkins ‘feels guilty’ surviving Singleton house fire that killed three of her four children

House fire survivor Kara Atkins collapsed and screamed in agony, ‘please, not the babies’, after finding out three of her four children died after their Singleton home was engulfed in flames last week.

• Mum’s distraught screams over kids trapped in blaze
• Grieving ‘horrendously’: Broken family ripped apart by fire

EXCLUSIVE: House fire survivor Kara Atkins screamed in agony when she was told the unbearable news only one of her four children survived the blaze that ravaged their home in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The hysterical mother, 31, who watched helplessly from afar as flames engulfed her eldest son trapped inside — collapsed as a doctor and social worker broke the news her twin daughters also perished, at her bedside at John Hunter Hospital.

She had been sedated since she was admitted to the hospital with smoke inhalation and burns to her forehead and back last Wednesday, aware her son Blake, 11, did not survive.

Kara Atkins, 31, woke up in hospital to the news her son and twin daughters died in the house fire.

Twins Matylda and Scarlett (left) Bayley and Blake (right). Bayley was pulled from the house and survived along with her mother.

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“She’s awake now and has been as screaming over the weekend, ‘where are the children?’”close friend Tash Hunter told The Daily Telegraph.

“She was unable to get inside when Blake was trapped but she had wiped it from her memory and thought the twins had made it when the ambulance took them.

“She screamed, ‘Why the girls? Please, not the babies,’ the doctors told her what happened at the weekend,” Ms Hunter said.

“She’s no longer on sedatives and can’t stop crying and feels guilty he’s the only one who survived.

“She’s blaming herself because she couldn’t save them. She’s in deep shock, her mental state is up and down, those children meant everything to her, she’s a wonderful mother, they wanted for nothing, she adored them.”

Ms Atkins screamed ‘Why the girls? Please, not the babies’ after hearing the heartbreaking news of the twins’ death.

Blake was overcome by the fierce fire. Picture: Ashleigh Gleeson

Sole survivor Bayley Atkins, eight, who is recovering from smoke inhalation at the hospital’s Ronald McDonald House, has been visiting her mother daily with twins’ father, track worker Chris Rinkin.

Firefighters were able to enter the house through the windows of two bedrooms and removed the twins, aged five, who were taken to Singleton Hospital but did not make it.

The home was gutted by fire. Investigators are looking into a faulty fireplace. Picture: AAP Image/Darren Pateman

The beloved pet dog also perished in the fire which broke out at the family’s Singleton home during the early hours of last Wednesday.

Miraculously, housewife Ms Atkins and eight-year-old sister Bayley were pulled from the flames and survived relatively unscathed.

Initial investigations suggest the fire was triggered by a faulty fireplace at the front of the house.

The Singleton community continues to mourn. Flower tributes outside the home.

Blake, 11, was pronounced dead at the scene while twin daughters, Matylda and Scarlett, were taken by ambulance to hospital but did not make it.

Family friend Braden Rodgers said Mr Rinkin, who works prolonged periods away from home, was “beside” himself with grief for his daughters.

“He’s been taking Bayley to see Kara and visiting daily, he can’t accept the twins have gone, he’s beside himself.”

Superintendent Chad Gillies said on Tuesday investigators were waiting on forensic analysis results before the coroner would comment on what caused the fire.

“It was a very tragic incident, we thank everyone in the community who helped, some of our emergency services workers are receiving counselling,” he said.

A GoFundMe page set up for the family has so far raised $234,000.

To donate visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/singleton-family-devasted-by-fire

Originally published as Kara Atkins ‘feels guilty’ surviving Singleton house fire that killed three of her four children