Interstate News: Smoke alarm saved my baby: mum
Aug 26, 2010
A Sunshine Coast couple say their 10-month-old baby would have died if it were not for a smoke alarm that alerted them to a blaze ripping through a room next to the child's bedroom.
Ian Tyrrell and Vanessa Catchpole were eating dinner when a faulty lamp is believed to have started the fire in the Alice Street home at Currimundi about 6pm.
“If we didn’t have that fire alarm, we would not have our baby," Ms Catchpole said.
Ms Catchpole said she and her husband could not fathom how close the family came to tragedy and were now trying to rebuild after losing all their possessions as they burnt inside the rental home.
The fire was so intense that two firefighters were treated for heat stress after they fought the blaze
It was one of several fires on the Sunshine Coast on Tuesday.
A bushfire swept across about 6km of land near Conondale National Park, west of Maleny.
Emergency crews received their first report of the fire just after 11am.
Eight rural crews and six Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service units responded to the fire at its peak.
A fixed-wing aircraft was used to conduct aerial reconnaissance.
Three units remained at the scene last night.
QFRS controller Pete Hollier said 12 fire crews fought Coast fires.
He added that the Coast community had helped emergency services by reporting all incidents.
“Community members have been vigilant in reporting instances to the triple-0 emergency service, which has allowed us to get a jump on the fire quickly,” he said.
He urged residents to visit QFRS and rural fire brigade websites to set up their own emergency action plan.
The record winter high temperatures were due to north-westerly winds, which were expected to ease today, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Geoff Doueal said.
He said the winds would return and temperatures rise again at the weekend.
The government extended a fire ban in south Queensland until midnight Wednesday as soaring temperatures and wind gusts created extreme fire conditions.
About 20 hectares of bush at Fernvale, west of Brisbane, was ablaze through the day.
Water-bombing helicopters were used for the first time this season to control the blaze.
Rural fire brigade officer Rob Scully said it appeared the Fernvale blaze may have been deliberately lit.
“We are just disappointed that someone set this fire,” he said.
“We don’t need this sort of nonsense at this time of the year.”
Eight crews were fighting a large fire in the Tallebudgera Valley on the Gold Coast. Two water-bombing helicopters were diverted to help.
Source: Sunshine Coast Daily