Member for Coffs Harbour House Fire

Mr ANDREW FRASER (Coffs Harbour—Deputy Leader of The Nationals) [1.04 p.m.]: I would like to put some thanks on the public record. As many members will be aware, on the evening of 28 June and in the early hours of 29 June my family home at Central Bucca was destroyed by fire. As a result it has been a fairly tumultuous and harrowing time for my wife, Kerrie, our children Angus and Elizabeth, who live with us, our daughter Alexandra, who lives in Sydney, and for me. On the night of the fire the Moonee, Sandy Beach and Nana Glen fire brigades turned up quickly, but unfortunately not quickly enough to save the house. We live some 15 minutes from town and, as my son's friend said later, the house was well and truly alight within three minutes and basically gone within 15 minutes.

I thank the children who were at the home that evening. Rachel Gordon, Adrian McLaughlin, Josh Chiswell, Tiana Walsh, my son's girlfriend, Angus and Elizabeth did everything in their power to put out the fire. We were not there as we were driving home from Sydney. At the time I questioned why the children did not do this or that. However, upon our return I discovered that they had done everything I would have done had I been there. It is amazing that a brick and tile home with a concrete floor can burn to nothing in 15 minutes. Nothing was saved. My daughter suffered fairly severe burns to her right foot. I thank the Ambulance Service, the forensic police, staff at the Coffs Harbour Health Campus and particularly staff at the Royal North Shore Hospital burns unit—particularly Dr John Vandervord, who oversaw her case, Doctors Ravi and Aruna, Jan, a nurse, Peter, and Rachel, the physiotherapist. Elizabeth had to have skin grafted from her other foot, and the staff were just fantastic. They are very caring people and did an unbelievable job. I cannot reiterate enough the great comfort they gave to Elizabeth, Kerrie and me and to other family members during a time of real distress.

Elizabeth will have to wear pressure stockings for 12 to 18 months then a special glove for her foot and have orthotics in her shoes. But she is alive and well, and the trauma for us all was not too great. Angus suffered severe smoke inhalation. He crawled out of the house on his stomach, commando style, after attempting to douse the flames. Our friends have been absolutely fantastic. Jay and Elizabeth Ruthven are our landlords at the moment as we are living at their residence part time. Sheryl Empson, another good friend, and Kirsty Arthur helped us clean up after the fire. I thank our insurers, who have been a great help so far, and the assessor, Lyndal Weatherby. Our neighbours Lloyd and Julie Tubb were absolutely fantastic on the night of the fire. In fact, Julie, who is a retired nurse, went to the hospital with Elizabeth and stayed with her all night until we arrived home at 7.00 a.m.

We had to employ extra staff in the electorate office to answer the hundreds of telephone calls that we received. We received I do not know how many letters and cards from members of Parliament, friends and people I have been in touch with over the years. Our telephones did not stop ringing for a week. It is quite humbling to receive that sort of support from the community during a time of real crisis for our family. We will rebuild. We are in the process of drawing up plans for a new house and we will get on with our lives. However, the children have lost all their childhood mementos, such as school reports, birth certificates—you name it. I lost 17 years worth of political memorabilia. We lost all the baby photographs, and even the computer. My son, who is somewhat of a computer expert, said it was the first time he had seen a computer destroyed so completely that he could not retrieve any data from it.

However, although we have lost everything, we have everything in front of us. We have the opportunity to resettle and we look forward to building a new home. On a lighter note, for the first time in 34 years of marriage my wife is sick of shopping. She was left with just two pairs of jeans, a coat and some other clothing she had with her in Sydney that night. I was the luckiest in the family as I had two suits, a sports coat, a pair of jeans and six shirts. That is basically all that remains after the fire. I thank my staff and the emergency services personnel. I thank our friends for their support. I thank Jay and Elizabeth Ruthnam and their children, Kamala and Lara. Country Energy was a great help too. I give a big thank you to all those who offered us assistance and support—I hope I have not forgotten anyone. I urge everyone to install smoke detectors in every room of their houses. As my son said, they give people time to escape a burning house but they will not stop the house from burning.