By DANIEL JACKSON
Fire robbed Whangarei grandmother Irene Gregory of two of her grandsons, but when it struck again, she wasn't going to let the same thing happen to her granddaughter.
A fire, started by an unattended gas cooker at her Otaika Rd home on Monday, brought back terrible memories of a blaze nearly a year ago, in which her 4-year-old grandsons, Jerome Marsh and Chanel Pukeroa, died.
After the tragedy, Ms Gregory became involved in a safety campaign for the Fire Service.
The experience equipped her to deal with Monday's blaze.
Her first thoughts were for her granddaughter Anahera, who was playing in a room only metres from the fire.
"The only thing that was running through my mind was to get my granddaughter out."
After rescuing Anahera, she composed herself and planned how to beat the flames.
Using her training from the advertising campaign, she closed the windows and doors to rob the fire of oxygen, shut off the gas bottle and began to put the fire out with a garden hose.
Ms Gregory said the fire had brought back terrible memories of the blaze that killed her grandsons. "We're still very shaky. We had been making steady progress ... This has set us back."
Tragedy's lifesaving lesson
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