Firefighter found critically hurt stepson in classroom

Kaitaia volunteer firefighter Craig Rogers was not prepared for the gut-wrenching sight he faced when he arrived at Kaitaia College yesterday.

As he dealt with the seven people hurt in a blast which ripped through an engineering classroom, he found his barely conscious stepson, Kelly Strong, 15, lying critically hurt in the debris.

He was barely conscious with a fractured skull and was bleeding heavily from many cuts received when the explosion filled the air with flying debris.

After calling his control room to update them on the enormity of the explosion, he stuck with Kelly, comforting him until the ambulance arrived.

Mr Rogers said that as he raced to the school in the Kaitaia fire appliance he was not expecting his son to be among the seven people hurt when the classroom was ripped apart, possibly by an explosion from leaking acetylene gas.

The volunteer firefighters arrived before ambulances and were confronted with what has been described as a battlezone in the classroom where Mr Rogers knew a fellow volunteer firefighter taught.

As the firefighters began to look after the injured until the ambulances arrived, he began checking on how many patients there were, the severity of their injuries and looking for volunteer firefighter and teacher Selwyn Subritzky.

Instead, he found his son Kelly lying on the floor.

"There was a little bit of a shock for a second but I knew I had a job to do and had to do it," he said.

"I notified our control room that we had seven (patients) so they could notify ambulance. Then I went back in and stuck with Kelly," Mr Rogers said.

"I said to one of the boys I will look after him. We usually get a patient each and stick with one patient. We had enough numbers for that. I said I have got Kel."

He said Kelly recognised him. "He was in a lot of shock and a lot of pain. They were all in a lot of pain," Mr Rogers added.

Mr Rogers stayed with Kelly for the ride in the ambulance to Kaitaia Hospital. He was later transferred to Whangarei with a fractured skull and cuts to his head.

Kelly was knocked unconscious in the blast but by the time Mr Rogers arrived he was conscious and recognised him but was not making much sense.

"He was talking if you could call it talking -- as best he could. He doesn't remember anything about it really. He is on the mend. We are all good now that we are through the worst and the mending process has begun," he said.

Mr Rogers, a Kaitaia plumber, said it was not the first time he had had to deal with personal trauma at a callout.

"I have had to pull some close friends out of cars not alive."

He said it was expected when he was a volunteer firefighter in a small community and it was "just a case of having to" deal with it.

Kelly is likely to be in hospital for some time.

- NZPA