‘I didn’t expect the fire to run like it did,’ father of dead boy tells inquest

The father of two boys who were burnt in a fatal house fire has denied lighting a blaze inside to “teach them a lesson” about their messy bedroom.

The coronial inquest into how one of the boys died in the 2017 blaze concluded on Wednesday after hearing from about two dozen witnesses.

The boys’ father – the last to give evidence – told the court he remembered first getting the younger boy out of their burning home after a fire ripped through the building on their rural property.

“I thought [the other boy] being older would have followed me out, but he didn’t,” the father said.

He said that for some reason, the older boy headed towards where the fire started. He told the court he went back in for the boy, finding him on the other side of the bedroom.

When asked by counsel assisting the coroner, Kate Juhasz, why he did not take both boys at once from the bed, the father said he did not know.

“I don’t know why I did what I did ... there’s no rational reason ... I’ve been through that, I’ve punished myself with all that, and I’ve got no answers for that.

“Why didn’t I grab both kids? Why did I let them get out of bed calmly? Why didn’t I just grab the two kids straight up out of bed and bring [them] to the door before I opened it? I’ve asked myself this 1000 times. I don’t understand why I did what I did.

“I guess I tried to keep the situation calm. In hindsight, I wish I didn’t. If I knew it was going to do what it was going to do, I wouldn’t have let them slowly get out of bed. I didn’t expect the fire to run like it did.”

The father said he was confused about which door he used when he went back in to retrieve the older boy.

“It all happened very fast, and it was very confusing,” he said.

He said once he got the boys outside, he poured a bucket of water over both of them before seeking help from his parents at their home on the same property.

“I told the boys to go to nanna and pop’s. I ran out to call out to mum and dad for help. They were in their lounge room watching TV.”

The father denied he was with his parents at the time of the fire, contrary to notes shown to the inquest from a student paramedic, who wrote that he told her he was there watching television.

The father recalled the boys’ room had a makeshift clothes hanger made of chains and a broomstick.

“I do believe that once that had caught fire, it would have flared up – it’s just clothes hanging, like it’s a perfect disaster really,” he said.

“In hindsight, it’s something I’ll never do again, but at the time, I thought it was a way of storing their clothes.”

Juhasz put to the father that on the afternoon of the fire, the boys had been difficult. The father answered no.

She suggested he had a number of drinks, to which the father said he had two. She put to the father that he was having relationship problems.

“And you come into the boys’ room, and you told police there are toys and clothes strewn all over the floor again?”

The father said he did not remember.

Juhasz continued: “And you say, to teach them a lesson – you’re upset – ‘I’ll show you what will happen if you keep doing this’, and you burn some of the clothes, and you put them on the ground in that room, and you thought you’d put it out, and you went to bed.”

The father replied: “I wouldn’t light fires up inside the house. I wouldn’t light a fire inside my house.”

The father said he did not know how the fire started.

“There was no fire started in the house by myself, and I very much doubt that fire in that house was started by my children.”

The court previously heard there were allegations that someone else lit the fire, including associates of the mother, and claims that neighbours had seen people entering the property.

It heard the father suffered burns to 16 per cent of his body. He told the court skin had peeled from his back onto a stretcher when he was being flown in a rescue helicopter to hospital.

In audio from the night played to the court, he told an attending officer that he woke up and the house was on fire.

He could be heard saying he would be “pointing the finger” at his ex-partner, the mother of the boys. The inquest earlier heard the mother was not in the same area.

In the audio, he said there was nothing in the house that could have caused the fire.

“My house was fire safe, I was bushfire prepared, so a fire should not have ever been a problem for us. I did everything in my power to make it fire safe,” he told the court.

In a statement read to the court from the boys’ mother at the closing of the inquest, she described the older boy, who died from his burns, as a happy little boy who loved his brother.

“He was also very loving, kind, and a very smart little boy who was always up for a hug and a snuggle.

“[The boy] always looked out for his baby brother and was very protective of [him].

“They did everything together. Losing my little boy has left a hole in my heart that will never be filled. I miss him every day.”

Coroner Megan Fairweather will hand down her findings at a later date.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.