'My babies have died': Mother's desperate call after fatal house fire
Wednesday, 15 July 2020
An 8-year-old boy may have been trying to save his baby sister when they both perished in a Christchurch house fire, family believe. That, or he became disoriented trying to escape.
Brayden, 8, and 9-month-old Arianna died in a fire at their three-bedroom house on Vivian St, Burwood, on Tuesday night. The baby's father crawled into the house to try get them out, but was forced to retreat.
Firefighters found Brayden at the doorway of the baby’s bedroom, where the blaze was “unsurvivable” police said. Three others in the house escaped, warned by smoke alarms.
Brayden’s grandmother, Angela Martin, told Stuff she learned of the tragedy when their mother, Nicole Mulligan, phoned her, hysterical shortly after she arrived home and was told two of her four children were dead.
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“She said to me, ‘My babies have died, I’m having a nightmare,’” Martin recalled.
Martin believes it’s possible that Brayden, who was found outside Arianna’s room, was trying to save her or became disorientated trying to escape. Emergency services said Arianna’s bedroom suffered the “most fire intensity”.
After receiving the news, Martin called her son, Brayden’s dad, and told him what happened.
“I heard his voice and I just started howling on the phone and I had to hand the phone to my husband.”
They had to repeat the news several times before Shaun Gibson realised what happened.
A short time later Mulligan called Martin again to say Brayden was being taken to hospital and ask if she would like to go as well.
“I saw Brayden and he looked so peaceful, he really looked like he was sleeping.”
Mulligan was “in shock”, Martin said.
Martin’s husband, Trevor, spoke with Arianna's father, Des Cooke, who had been woken by a smoke alarm and was able to save the two other children in the home.
“He walked into the room and just said, ‘I tried so hard, I’m so sorry, I tried.’”
Cooke said he thought Brayden had managed to get out of the house, as he slept in the same room as his 6-year-old brother, Lucas.
“He thought he got them all out … and said, ‘Where’s Brayden?’ And Lucas said, ‘He didn’t come out,’ so Des went back in with one of the neighbours to try and find Brayden.”
‘HE KNEW HE WAS LOVED’
Brayden, who attended Bishopdale Primary, had an “absolute heart of gold”, Martin said.
He had stayed with her every fortnight since he was born. On Saturday, Martin took Brayden to a swimming lesson, then asked him whether he wanted to stay at her house that night.
“He said, ‘No, I want to go home because I think my mum will miss me,’ and then he said, ‘Maybe I’ll miss my mum too.’
“He knew he was really loved. He protected his brothers and sisters as best he could, he doted over his two baby sisters.”
Although he currently lived in Wellington, Gibson was “very involved” in his son’s life.
About three weeks ago, Gibson and Brayden played video games together at Martin’s home and were “cracking up laughing”.
Martin said she felt like her heart had been ripped out when she received the news of Brayden’s death.
“We’re absolutely devastated.
“Nicole loves all of her kids so much… not one of those kids ever thought that they weren’t loved.”
THE RESCUE
Neighbour Lynn Baughan said she went inside the burning home with Cooke, so she could ensure he was able to get back out.
“It was just bloody awful,' she said.
“We went in on our knees and had a look around, smoke and fire was everywhere. I told him we had to get out, it wasn’t safe.”
Another neighbour, Matt Fitzsimmons fought the fire with a garden hose while in his dressing-gown and standing on his truck.
“The sound, the kids, the flames, the roar, the glass, the guy screaming out ‘my baby’ … I was seeing everything firsthand, it’s just something I never thought I would ever have to deal with.”
A Givelittle page created for the family said Cooke “heroically” saved two of the children, and was injured when he went back into the house to try save the other two. The page had raised more than $50,000 for the family by 8pm Wednesday.
An investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.
Theresa Fitzsimmons said her 8-year-old son often played with the children next door.
“When we moved here [in October] … it was like your 90s neighbourhood where all the kids were out in the street playing.
“I just feel for [the mum], I feel for the other kids, I just wouldn’t wish this on anybody.”
She put both her children in bed together at the other end of their house following the blaze, and “went in there about a million times … checking that they were OK”.
“If we look outside our window, all we see is the front room where that baby was.”
Another neighbour, Corey Dunnill, 22, said he “can't get the screaming out of his head”.
He first thought the noise was coming from the television, then ran outside and saw smoke and flames coming from the house over the fence.
He grabbed a hose in a “panic” and tried to douse the flames from over the fence.
Dunnill said he saw one of the children’s bodies being taken out of the house, something he wished he had not seen. The second child’s body was removed from the house on Wednesday afternoon.
“I can’t get it out of my head [and] I can't get the screaming out of my head.
“It’s just devastating … hard to comprehend.”