Mother pulls son from car fire

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33444, 28 January 1974, Page 20

Mother pulls son from car fire

A woman burnt her hands badly as she rescued her three-year-old son from a burning car and fought against flames “as high as the telephone lines.”

Mrs June Duncan, of 104 Barbour Street, was attracted by the screams of her three-year-old son, and was burned after lifting him out of the car.

“The flames were roaring as high as the telephone lines.” a neighbour said last evening. “It was very fierce.”

The heat cracked a front window of the house, gutted the car and blistered the paint on the boot of another car about 10ft away. At the height of the fire, tar began melting from the roof of the carport in which the car was parked. The neighbour said the boy had locked himself in the car after the family had returned from a trip. The fire started soon afterwards, and the boy's screams of “unlock the car” and “fire” could be heard from several houses away.

After rescuing her son, Mrs Duncan tried to put out the flames with sacks, and badly burned her hands. She was taken by ambulance to Burwood Hospital and discharged after treatment. “The smoke was so thick that her other children could not get out of the house to the street,” said the neighbour. “One of the boys ran

down to the back of the property and, climbed a fence to escape—Ke was pretty shaken.”