Her horrified parents do not wish for any family to repeat their experience and are encouraging others through social media to ensure their stoves and households are safe and secure. 

Priya was hospitalised with third degree burns, and her father Allister Dobbin received second degree burns to his feet, when the simple act of leaning on an oven door caused the pot of oil to come down on top of Priya on April 23.

The family had been deep frying potato chips and had only turned the heat off 15 minutes earlier.

Mr Dobbin rushed to scoop Priya from the pool of oil on the floor, describing the incident as his “worst nightmare”.

“It was like tipping a bucket of water on her,” he said.

“The sound of her screaming, I just wanted to make sure she was OK.”

Her mother Angela Dobbin said it would be a long road to recovery for the injured toddler, who would need skin grafts to her back, groin and possibly her head.

Her back is also likely to scar.

“I couldn’t hold her for four days,” Ms Dobbin said.

“At one stage I didn’t know where to touch her or pick her up. It was horrible.”

The Dobbins had always considered themselves proactive about household safety, even taking the knobs off the front of the stove and putting covers over the taps to ensure their three children weren’t able to turn them on.

After the incident they set up a Facebook page ‘Every Families Worst Nightmare’ in a bid to share their story with other families.

Mr Dobbin said household safety was the responsibility of everyone.

rachel.afflick@fairfaxmedia.com.au