Car fire baby fights for its life

The burned-out car in which Dukie was trapped. Photo / John Cowpland

A baby was fighting for his life last night after being trapped in a burning car.

Dukie King, 23 months, was pulled from the car by his father about 2pm yesterday in the tiny Hawke's Bay settlement of Mohaka.

The infant was raced by helicopter to Hawkes Bay Hospital, 25km further south, before being flown to the specialist burn treatment unit at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital. He arrived about 9.30pm.

Specialist burns surgeons were called urgently to the hospital to operate on Dukie in a bid to save his life. Burns covered 55 per cent of his body.

A neighbour in Mohaka told of arriving at the house in the minutes after father Nathan had pulled his small son from the burning car.

He said the car was blazing in the driveway, about 30m from the house where Dukie lived with Nathan King, his mother Andrea Wainohu, two brothers and two sisters.

"The car was on fire," the neighbour said. "It's just one of those things that happened you just can't stop it, eh? It was just the blink of an eye.

"The boy was already out when I got there. His dad got him out."

King was outside fighting to put the fire out; Wainohu had already taken the injured Dukie into the house.

The man said he was asked by Wainohu to take the injured boy to hospital. They prepared to leave, but found the path to his car blocked by the burning vehicle.

"The driveway was blocked 'cos the car was on fire so she had to hop over the fence," he said. "As she got over the fence with the baby we saw the ambulance coming."

Dukie's older brother assured him he was there with him, as the baby was lifted into the ambulance. "There was a boy there too, he was talking to his brother, keeping him, keeping him there."

Minutes after the family gathered in the ambulance, the local volunteer fire brigade arrived and put out the fire. The rescue helicopter arrived shortly after to take Dukie and his parents to Hawke's Bay Hospital, where a growing number of family members gathered into yesterday evening.

King's cousin Ngaire Culshaw said the accident was a devastating blow for the close-knit settlement of about 30 homes.

She said King and Wainohu were positive and strong influences for their children, and taught them how to be self-sufficient.

"They grow their own vegetables, they're into fishing and that sort of thing," she said. "Their kids, even the little ones can fish.

"They're good providers, they teach them how to feed them from the earth."

She said she would pray for Dukie's recovery: "That's going to be a journey within a journey for them.

"It just makes you more aware of children. He's a good little bubba - just a normal baby."

Winiperi King (no relation to Nathan King) saw smoke rising from an area close to the house about 2pm. She said she could not see the source of the smoke and was puzzled as to the origin. "We just saw black smoke going up."

The family moved into the area a few years ago, with the two elder children attending Mohaka School.

Uncle Charles Wainohu said family had returned to Mohaka many years after Wainohu's grandparents had left the area. He said the couple had been together for more than 10 years.