'A fireball just engulfed them' says would-be rescuer

Brian Keogh had hold of the 8-year-old girl caught in the house fire but he was blown back by a ball of flames. Picture / Greg Bowker

Brian Keogh had hold of a little girl and was about to pull her from a burning South Auckland house yesterday when a fireball blew him back from the window.

Later, trembling and tearful, he told how he had to let go of the child, who died in the blaze.

Mr Keogh had been heading out for a day's fishing at Maraetai when he noticed smoke coming from the house in Otara.

He heard cries of children inside and didn't think twice.

He parked in the middle of the road and ran up the drive.

"The older daughter was screaming, 'My baby sister and baby brother are still inside'," said Mr Keogh of Otahuhu, a father himself.

He and another man smashed the deadlocked windows of the children's bedroom and Mr Keogh reached in and up to the top bunk. He grabbed what he thought was a child, but it was bedding.

As he dropped it, he found the girl on the floor.

"Me and the other guy ripped the window open. I jumped up, reached down and grabbed the little girl by her blue night-dress," he said.

"But as I looked to the left I could see into the lounge. There was black smoke. The other people helping smashed windows in the house and opened up the door. As soon as they did that a fireball came into the kids' bedroom and just engulfed them.

"It just went whoosh and blew me back out the window and I dropped her.

"Once the flames had engulfed the bedroom I knew there was not much else I could do for her," said the devastated 50-year-old.

He and other would-be rescuers had to wait for firefighters before the children could be rescued from the house. It was too late for the 8-year-old girl at the family's rented home in East Tamaki Rd.

A 10-year-old boy with burns to three-quarters of his body was taken to Middlemore Hospital in a critical condition.

A 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman were taken to the hospital in a serious condition.

A man who was in the house, understood to be the family's stepfather, was uninjured.

The dead child had not been publicly identified last night. Her mother, who is understood to be travelling in the Philippines, had yet to be told of the tragedy.

A neighbour, Gailene Hazelden, described the children as always polite and said of the 8-year-old, "She was such a nice little girl. The father absolutely loved them.

"He was traumatised - [worrying about] what he could have done, should have done."

Traffic was diverted for several hours on the Papatoetoe off-ramp from the Southern Motorway while firefighters dealt with the blaze.

Investigators said the fire probably started in the kitchen and the house did not have smoke detectors.

The Fire Service's chief safety officer in Auckland, Murray Binning, said the fire was probably caused by oil on the stove overheating.

Fire safety officer Chris Napier said smoke detectors would have saved the 8-year-old's life.

The three-bedroom stucco-brick house would have needed five or six of the devices costing about $15 each.