Mother searches in burning house for missing toddler

A mother crawled through her smoke- filled home in a frantic search for her toddler as fire swept through their house yesterday.

Joanne Murray found her three-year- old son Tycanz hiding under a bed and grabbed him before dragging him to safety.

The pair, from rural Puketotara Rd, near Okaihau, in Northland were taken to Bay of Islands Hospital, Kawakawa suffering shock and smoke inhalation.

Ms Murray's sister- in-law, Renee Stallworthy, said Joanne had rung emergency services after realising a fire had taken hold in the house around 1.15pm. Her son had been at her side, but when she went outside he had disappeared.

"Her boy ran off and hid under a bed, so she had to go back in and find him and drag him out," Ms Stallworthy said.

Family members spoke to her by phone shortly after she was admitted to hospital. "She was in shock and bawling. She was really terrified, there had been smoke right through the whole house."

Ms Murray's sister, Tania Murray, said the home had been in the family about 60 years, but the part of the house gutted by the blaze was an adjoining three-roomed flat that had been built just five years ago. "It's sad, but all we are worried about is that everyone is safe, that no lives were lost," Tania said.

"The rest is just material things. We have still got our memories."

The family would now pull together. "My father passed away in this house about two years ago and that's the hard part about this. It hurts, but they say bad things bring families closer together."

Northland fire safety officer Lindsay Murray, who was sifting through the charred remains yesterday, said Ms Murray had gone "right down low and was crawling around looking for the kid". "She found the kid and got out ... it's very scary but any parent would do the same." It was unclear exactly which bedroom the boy was in when he was found.

A recently plugged- in cellphone was a possible cause of the blaze.

"(Joanne) said she plugged the cellphone in and put it on the window sill and went out of the room. Then she came back in and the curtains were on fire," Mr Murray said. "It was an old cellphone and it was the first time she had plugged it in for a long while."

Investigations were continuing.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)