By TONY GEE
When flames from a rubbish blaze engulfed him, Northland schoolboy Zane Going remembered a fire safety message he had learned at school.
The 9-year-old was helping to burn branches and leaves in a paddock on his family's farm at Hukerenui, north of Whangarei, when his clothes caught fire
from a flashback.
As the flames licked over his body, Zane remembered the "stop, drop and roll" advice a Kawakawa volunteer fireman and visiting resource teacher, Vincent Ridgeway, had given the pupils of Towai School just five days before.
"He did exactly the right thing.
"He stopped, dropped and rolled on the grass," Zane's mother, Rae Going, said at the weekend after bringing her son home from two weeks spent in Middlemore Hospital's Kidz First unit.
"If he hadn't acted straight away to stop, drop and roll, he would have been a real mess with his clothes on fire," she said.
Zane suffered serious burns, some second degree, to his stomach, chest and neck, when the fire flashed back as he tried to open it up with a branch.
"Dion [Zane's father] was milking at the time and I didn't realise what had happened at first," Mrs Going said.
"I saw Zane on the ground and thought he was playing with his younger brother, Cody."
When she realised her son was in trouble, Mrs Going rushed him inside and poured cold water over him in the bath for about 15 minutes.
Zane was taken to accident and emergency at Whangarei Hospital but was soon in an ambulance on his way to Middlemore, where he arrived at 1 am the next day.
He now has skin grafts in burned areas, with skin taken from his upper leg.
"See, Mum, I did listen," Zane, a grandson of former All Black Ken Going, told his mother afterwards.
She said doctors, nurses and staff at Middlemore had done a wonderful job.
"Everyone's been very supportive and we're very proud of him.
"That stop, drop and roll message really works."
Towai School principal Brent Davies said volunteer firefighters from Hikurangi regularly visited the school with fire safety messages.
The last visit was timed just before Guy Fawkes night.
The assistant regional fire commander in Northland, Mike Lister, said the "stop, drop and roll message" was part of the Fire Service's Firewise programme aimed at schools.
Mr Lister said it was important that schools take up the optional Firewise programme.
But he said less than half of Northland's schools with Year 1 and 2 children had done so.
Refresher courses are taken with Year 7 and 8 children. "It's pleasing to see Towai has the programme."
Zane is now concentrating on getting better and hopes he will be able to return to school before the term finishes.
"He was very lucky," his father said. "It could have been much worse."
By TONY GEE
When flames from a rubbish blaze engulfed him, Northland schoolboy Zane Going remembered a fire safety message he had learned at school.
The 9-year-old was helping to burn branches and leaves in a paddock on his family's farm at Hukerenui, north of Whangarei, when his clothes caught fire
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