LUCKY: Danae Hogan and son Brodie, 4, escaped their home unharmed after a fire started in Brodie’s bedroom.
Click below to watch Jordan Oliver’s interview with Danae Hogan.
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A BALLARAT mother says a smoke alarm saved her family’s life after a fire partially destroyed their Mount Pleasant home.
Danae Hogan said she was studying while her four-year-old son, Brodie, went to watch cartoons in his bedroom when the blaze erupted in his bedroom, causing the smoke alarm to go off.
The boy had lit a tea candle with a stove lighter on his bed, which then ignited the mattress.
“At first it took me a few minutes to work out I wasn’t cooking dinner, so I thought ‘why was the smoke alarm going off’?”
“I ran up the hallway just as Brodie was coming out of his bedroom, then I walked in to see the mattress alight.”
Ms Hogan said she grabbed her son, left the house, but went back inside to get her cats and try to fight the blaze with some water.
“By the time I got back inside, within 30 seconds the whole wall was engulfed in flames,” she said.
“There was so much smoke, I just thought ‘forget it’.”
Fire crews arrived at the Tress Street home to find the bedroom “fully involved” and took some time to fully contain the blaze, which caused an estimated $30,000 damage.
“It all happened so quick,” Ms Hogan said.
“From when I heard the alarm, it would have been five minutes tops.
“If it wasn’t for the smoke alarm I don’t know what would have happened ... I just hate to think what would have happened to Brodie.”
Ms Hogan said all parents should make sure their smoke alarm was operational, a fire extinguisher was kept handy and urged them to keep on eye on their children at all times.
She said just 24 hours before the blaze, she sat Brodie down for a fire safety talk.
“My son, god bless him, is the kind of boy who, if I say don’t do something, he’ll go do it.”
Ms Hogan paid tribute to the CFA crews and her neighbours for helping out during the ordeal.
CFA District 15 operations officer Gavin Hope said the blaze served as a warning for others to check their smoke alarms were operational.
“We’re very fortunate on this occasion that there was a working smoke alarm, because that actually alerted the mother to what was happening,” he said.
“It was very lucky — it’s a good outcome in the fact that they’ve only lost a bit of a bedroom a mattress and some other things, but they didn’t lose their life.”
Mr Hope said the CFA ran regular juvenile fire awareness and intervention programs for children and their parents.
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