Vickie Le has been identified as the desperate mother who begged for her help as fire took over the house her family were trapped inside.
A neighbour who witnessed the deadly blaze on Rottnest Avenue at Hinchinbrook on Sunday has spoken out about the unimaginable scene.
“She was begging for us to go in there and save the children.
“Telling us her mother was upstairs, and her son was upstairs.”
At about 5.40am, 10 fire trucks responded to the emergency but it was too late to save them all.
Le’s son, 10-year-old Darren, was one of three who tragically died in the blaze.
“I just can’t believe it,” the boy’s step-father, Trevor, said.
“He was a lovely boy, always smiling, happy go lucky, never worried about nothing, had that cheekiness.”
The young boy died after being pulled from the upstairs level of the burning townhouse.
His father, Minh Nguyen, was critically injured in the fire before being intubated and taken to Concord Hospital, while mother Vickie suffered superficial injuries.
“She’s coping, she’s aware of what happened,” said Trevor.
“Minh is still in hospital, he is in a pretty bad way.
“Vickie is one of the lucky ones.
“Smoke burns down her throat and her nostrils, the rest of her body is ok apart from a cut under her eye.
“She’s lost everything and I mean everything.
“She loved that little boy.”
Two other family members were killed in the fire: Vickie’s cousin and her elderly mother, who suffered from dementia.
Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) has spoken out about the importance of working fire alarms in preventing fatal incidents.
“We’ve had 13 deaths in home fires this winter season and we can’t keep going at this rate,” FRNSW Deputy Commissioner Megan Stiffler said.
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