Devastating fire at family home started by boy, 5, 'playing with lighter'
A young family has been devastated by a fire that destroyed their home in southern Adelaide.
The O’Sullivan Beach home was gutted on Monday by a house fire at about 5pm.
Diana Bhandari, her two children and the family dog managed to escape before the house was completely destroyed.
It’s believed the house fire was started after a child with a lighter set fire to a couch, South Australia Metropolitan Fire tweeted.
The child is said to be Ms Bhandari’s five-year-old son.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for the family.
Family friend Simone Greer wrote the family’s life “was completely turned upside down” and they had lost “all their possessions they had worked so hard to purchase over the years”.
A mother, her 2 children and family dog escaped a house fire in #OSullivanBeach after a child playing with a lighter set fire to a couch. Prevent your kids from engaging in unsafe fire play with these tips https://t.co/fHINFh80z7
— SA Metropolitan Fire (@SA_MFS) January 7, 2019
“The one thing Diana was able to recover was her memories of her family, besides her family themselves they are her most valuable possessions,” Ms Greer wrote.
“With this being said the family is now left with nothing else. No Clothes, no toiletries, no furniture (and) all their children’s Christmas presents gone.”
Ms Greer added “even the clothes they have on soaked up the smell of smoke”.
The woman told the Adelaide Advertiser her friend’s message is not to leave a lighter where children can reach “as a fire could happen in an instant”.
