Community rallies during blaze

The life of a young autistic boy was saved by a quick-thinking woman, the Margaret River community and social media at the weekend.

Resident Trixie Hicks pulled five-year-old Arman Jabbar out of the Margaret River on Sunday after he wandered about 2km from his home.

Arman’s mother Lana Saber said her son had vanished about midday from the family’s backyard, where he had been splashing around in a shallow inflatable paddle pool with his brothers, Allan, 10, and two-year-old Unis.

“I had walked out to greet my husband Azan at his car, ” Ms Saber said.

“In the space of a few seconds, Arman had gone. I don’t know if he jumped over the fence or slipped past me in the driveway.”

Immediately Ms Saber and her family set out in search of Arman, as temperatures soared to above 30C and emergency service workers struggled to contain a bushfire at nearby Riverslea.

After nearly an hour’s frantic but fruitless searching, Ms Saber called police.

“My cousins, who also live in Margaret River, put Arman’s picture on Facebook and we had at least 30 families out helping us search, ” Ms Saber said.

“Then one lady wrote on Facebook ‘I found the boy’.

“It was Arman. She had taken him to police.”

Earlier that day Ms Hicks had seen the post on the Facebook page Margaret River Buy and Sell about a missing boy, which had attracted hundreds of comments in minutes.

“I was taking my children down to the rope swing at the river around 4pm, ” she said.

“A little boy approached, naked and with no sign of parents around him, and he just jumped in.”

Ms Hicks grabbed hold of the boy and pulled him from the water.

“He wasn’t responsive to commands and I actually had to physically pull him out, ” she said.

Margaret River Police officer-in-charge Sergeant Brett Cassidy said it was fortunate the situation had not ended in tragedy.

“You know, he walked a considerable distance, and the community of Margaret River deserves to be congratulated for the way they rallied through the local Buy and Sell on Facebook and helped us find him so promptly and return him, ” he said.

Ms Saber said she “couldn’t believe her eyes” when she saw her son alive and well after five terrifying hours.

“I still can’t believe it when I look at him now, ” she said.

“Thank you to the people of Margaret River, you are my family.”