Source : Perth Now news
A coroner’s inquest into the deaths of five children and their father in a house fire will examine whether domestic violence or inactive smoke alarms contributed to the tragedy.
The dad, aged in his early 30s, and five boys aged between 11 and three died during the blaze on Russell Island, in Queensland’s Moreton Bay south of Brisbane, in August 2023.
The children’s mother and another relative were able to escape the fire that trapped the others upstairs in a “classic Queenslander” home elevated on stumps.
The first triple-zero calls, describing the house fire as “massive, just huge and out of control” were made at 6.18am, Coroner Donald MacKenzie heard.
“One caller said they heard arguing from about 5am that morning and before the fire,” counsel assisting Corinne Leach told a pre-inquest conference in Brisbane on Tuesday.
“One caller said ‘there’s domestic violence in there all the time. You can hear the screaming and there’s kids there’.”
Another person told emergency services: “We knew that one day they would kill these kids but nobody has done anything. There’s always screaming and the house is f***ing horrid”.
The mother along with the deceased father and children are not being named for legal reasons.
On the night before the fire the kids had gone to bed and the mother and father smoked and fell asleep on a couch in a makeshift entertainment area underneath the house.
The mother was woken by the father moving.
“He then screamed ‘no’ and she saw thick black smoke everywhere,” Ms Leach said.
The mother tried to follow the father up into the house but the flames had already engulfed the staircase.
An investigation found the fire likely started on the ground floor but the precise location could not be determined and deliberate ignition could not be ruled out.
The home’s downstairs featured blankets for walls with spotlights and a lava lamp that were connected by extension cords from a “bad” household electrical system, Ms Leach said.
A Rural Fire Brigade crew arrived at 6:35am.
However Queensland Fire and Rescue Services were a 45- to 60-minute barge ride away, the coroner heard.
The inquest would examine whether the emergency response to the fire was adequate and if any additional resources could have prevented the deaths.
The boys lived in a private rental home without working smoke alarms despite complaints by their mother to the landlord.
The inquest would examine the cause of the fire as well as whether domestic violence and a lack of working and compliant smoke alarms at the home had contributed to the fire.
The family’s landlord later pleaded guilty to failing to install smoke alarms and was fined $774 with no conviction recorded.
The inquest will run from November 16 with up to 10 days of hearings.
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