A Hawke's Bay boy who suffered severe burns to three-quarters of his body in a car fire three years ago, celebrated a fifth birthday to remember yesterday.
On August 13, 2011, the then-23-month-old Dukie King climbed into his parents' car at their home in the northern Hawke's Bay town of Mohaka.
The car erupted into flames within minutes after Dukie appeared to have begun playing with matches, his mother, Andrea King, said.
Dukie's father, Nathan King, had scrambled to save his son and pulled him from the burning wreck before the toddler was airlifted to Hawke's Bay Hospital in a critical condition and urgently transferred to Middlemore Hospital's specialist burns unit in Auckland.
After several surgeries and months in hospital, Dukie was "buzzing" about his big birthday in Napier yesterday, Mrs King said. "He is a typical boy from the country. He's into his motorbikes and feeds the pigs. Coming into town is a whole new thing for him and the family."