‘Hell on earth’: Haunting CCTV emerges after four-year-old dies in house fire
Haunting CCTV captures the moment a house goes up in flames with a four-year-old trapped inside.
The house caught fire at a home at Meadow Springs in Mandurah, 70km from Perth, early Sunday afternoon.
The temperature at the time was nearing 40C.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.A little boy was pulled from the home unresponsive and could not be saved.
Two other children were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and discharged on Monday morning.
CCTV footage captured a young girl fleeing the home as the fire begins to take hold.
Her teenage brother follows closely behind her, but the four-year-old remained trapped inside.
Neighbours swarmed the street trying to save him, but were overcome by heat and smoke.
“It was like hell on earth,” neighbour Loretta Westcott said.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life, and I never want to see it again.”
Another neighbour, Andrew Peckover, said the house was just “up and gone”.
“It was super quick. Scary quick.”
Firefighters braved the heat and pulled the boy out, but he could not be saved.
“There was nothing we could do. We couldn’t get in the house,” Westcott said.
“That smoke was so thick you couldn’t even see the flames through the smoke ... it was so black.”
The little boy’s siblings were discharged from hospital on Monday morning.
It’s understood the parents had been out shopping for Christmas presents when the house caught alight.
A GoFundMe has been set up, already raising thousands of dollars, while neighbours have donated clothes, essentials and children’s toys.
Originally published on 7NEWS
