A Cranbourne North mother has recounted the frightening moment her young family were lucky to escape their home after it was engulfed in flames.
In May this year, Nary Tauiliili and her family were eating breakfast downstairs at their family home when they began to hear a faint beeping noise.
Initially thinking it was the oven timer, Nary dismissed it. However, when it grew louder, Nary’s husband Matthew went to investigate.
Upon reaching the top storey of their house, Matthew realised a fire had broken out in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
“He ran downstairs to get a pot of water to try and douse out the flames, and I remember yelling for my stepson, who was still asleep at the time, to wake up and to come downstairs,” Nary said.
“By the time my husband got back to the bedroom, the fire had spread from one side of the room to the other, and he knew that there was nothing we could do.”
Within a matter of minutes, the entire top storey of their house was alight.
The Tauiliili family evacuated the house and called triple-zero.
“The CFA arrived within minutes of the triple zero call, but in that time the fire had spread from one bedroom throughout the top storey of our home.
About 20 firefighters arrived at the Sierra Boulevard home about 8.30am and brought the blaze under control within 45 minutes.
Nary’s family including her 18-month-old toddler and mother were able to safely escape with just the clothes on their back, and credit their safe evacuation to having a working smoke alarm.
At the time Ambulance Victoria said paramedics had treated a 16-year-old boy and a 37-year-old man for smoke inhalation and were taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition.
“We literally lost everything that day,” Nary said. “I honestly believe that we had the best outcome for the situation we were in. My family managed to escape relatively unharmed, but most importantly we managed to escape with our lives.
“I believe that that was due to having a working smoke alarm in our house. If we didn’t have a smoke alarm alert us to the fire, then the outcome for the situation we were in would be completely different.”
CFA recommends installing interconnected smoke alarms in every bedroom and living area. CFA data for the past 10 years shows 25 per cent of all fires that resulted in death or serious injury started in bedrooms.
With the increased numbers of people working from home or remotely from their normal workplace, CFA is warning of the potential for increased risk of structural fires.
For more information visit: www.cfa.vic.gov.au/smokealarms
