A house fire in Melbourne over the weekend has resulted in the death of a four-year-old boy, whose grieving mother has revealed more shocking information about the tragedy.
Nadia Kirushnaneethan had been cooking in the kitchen, only to enter the loungeroom and find it engulfed in flames.
Speaking to 7NEWS, she revealed that she broke a window in an attempt to get her son, Rithish, out of the house.
“I broke the window to take him but unfortunately the gas, the fire, came and it pushed me out,” she said.
“He was crying a little bit and after I didn’t hear his voice anymore.”
The mother-of-three rushed to rescue her young children from the fire, alongside a family friend who was boarding at the home.
Two of the children, aged eight and three, were rushed out of the home and later taken to Dandenong Public Hospital suffering smoke inhalation.
The family friend suffered serious burns while attempting to save Rithish, but he was unable to rescue the child.
Tragically, Rithish was killed in the blaze.
The family had been living at the rental property for two weeks, with the grieving mum revealing she had enquired about installing smoke alarms in the home days before the tragic incident.
However, she was told installation would be delayed due to Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown.
A GoFundMe has been started to help the family pay for accommodation and funeral costs for the little boy.
So far, more than $72,000 has been raised.
Police said the fire has been deemed non-suspicious and that a gas heater in the loungeroom likely started the blaze.
“I just ask the community to be really diligent with their heaters, especially in the winter,” Victoria Police’s Dandenong Local Area Commander Peter Koger said.
Image: GoFundMe
This article first appeared on Over60.