Alert mum gets family to flee blaze
A Cooloongup mother of two who managed to get her children out of their burning home seconds before their bedroom ceilings collapsed says she is thankful her family are alive.
Megan Zuks, her daughters aged 9 and 18 and the elder daughter's boyfriend were asleep in the Linville Avenue home when the 44-year-old smelt "a real stench" about 3.30am yesterday.
Diagnosed with fibromyalgia seven years ago, Ms Zuks says her heightened sense of smell and feeling led her to realise the home was on fire.
"My bedroom was aglow, my bedroom is usually black so I looked up at the air-conditioning vent and it was glowing red so I've just got to my daughter, 'get out of the bedroom' but she wouldn't move," she said.
Ms Zuks ran to the other bedrooms to get her other daughter and her eldest daughter's boyfriend out of the house.
Ms Zuks, her daughters and the boyfriend fled the home.
She said she ran back inside to get her mobile phone so she could call the fire brigade.
"I grabbed my phone and it was on fire . . . by then my door was on fire and my bed was aflame," Ms Zuks said. "When we got (outside) the air-conditioner exploded and it fell into the roof."
She said she would never forget this Mother's Day.
"I'm just thankful, can't be anything else," she said.
The fire caused $150,000 damage and destroyed many of the family's possessions.
