Little sisters escape inferno

Little sisters escape inferno
By REBECCA PAPPRILL - Eastern Courier | Friday, 21 March 2008
SHANE WENZLICK/Eastern Courier
FAMILY TRAGEDY: Aleisha, 6, and Maia, 2, are still coming to terms with the fire.

Get down, get low and get out – that’s what six-year-old Aleisha To told her mother as they escaped from their burning home last week.

They could be the words that saved her heavily pregnant mother Linh from going back inside to try to save her 67-year-old father Hoang Chi To who later died.

Senior fire safety officer Mike McEnaney commends Aleisha for relaying safety information taught to her by firefighters at school.

"She told her mother that they had to get out and stay out. That’s a standard safety message that firefighters continually deliver to children," he says.

The family was alerted to the fire by a smoke alarm.

The fire started in the downstairs bedroom where Mrs Linh’s father, an epileptic, was sleeping.

He had recently had a hip replacement and could not walk.

Aleisha, who goes to Point View School, her two-year-old sister Maia and Mrs To were inside their Moyrus Cres home in East Tamaki when Mrs To made a frantic 111 call to the Fire Service about 6.30am.

The Fire Service communicator convinced Mrs To to stay on the telephone until the first fire engine arrived and not to go back into the burning home.

A nearby resident helped the family until firefighters arrived.

Four fire engines responded to the blaze, which badly damaged the bedroom and caused smoke damage throughout the house.

Firefighters rescued Mrs To’s father from his bedroom and gave him first aid until ambulance crews arrived. He was taken to Middlemore Hospital in a serious condition suffering from burns.

"He went into intensive care, but did not make it. He had inhaled too much smoke into his lungs," Mrs To says.

"I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I keep thinking about it – how I could have done things differently. But I had to save my children.

"Even if my husband was home he could not have saved him."

Minh To says he raced home after his wife called to find fire trucks and the ambulance there.

He ran inside the smoke-filled home looking for his wife and children.

"The fire crew said I wasn’t allowed in there and directed me to my family who were safe with the neighbours."

Mr McEnaney says it was fortunate the family had a smoke alarm.

"This is more evidence that smoke alarms do save lives."

Investigations continue into the cause of the fire.

A funeral was held on Thursday for Hoang Chi To