11.45am
A 12-year-old Hastings girl plucked her four-month-old baby cousin from her bed and handed her safely into the arms of a relative minutes before fire destroyed her bedroom on Saturday morning.
But a petrified Ashley Hodgetts was rescued by a passerby because she was too scared to jump from a window
to save herself after passing baby Ocean Hodgetts outside to her aunty, Karen Hempel.
The family believed the fire was started by two of Ms Hempel's daughters, aged three and five, and a three-year-old nephew playing with a cigarette lighter in the front bedroom shortly before 8am.
Nine children were in the house at the time of the blaze.
In a back bedroom, Ashley and Ocean became trapped as the flames quickly engulfed the front of the house.
"I was changing baby's nappy when I heard everybody screaming. I tried to open the bedroom door but the flames started shooting into the bedroom. I had to let go because the door handle was too hot," said Ashley, who was taken to hospital along with her grandfather, Doug Hodgetts, 64, the baby, and Ms Hempel.
"I started to cry when I heard everyone screaming and the flames shooting into my room. So I picked up baby and yelled at my Aunty Karen to grab her. She at first looked a bit confused because I don't think she knew I had baby with me," said the youngster, who was recuperating with her grandmother in Napier over the weekend.
"The window handle was hot too but I opened it and quickly passed baby Ocean out to Aunty Karen. Then she said for me to jump out of the window but I refused. I was just too scared," she said.
A dentist driving to work stopped and rescued the girl, pulling her from the burning house.
"The man grabbed my arm and helped me get out. I just couldn't breathe because of the smoke," she said.
Ashley's mother, Diane Singh, 30, had been watching television in another bedroom with her other children Michael, nine, Pagan, four, Brooklyn, one, and their one-year-old cousin, Roman.
Ms Hempel, who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor where the fire is believed to have started said she woke up to see the bed alight.
"I don't know what made me wake up. I started screaming at the children to get out of the house," she said.
The house did not have a smoke detector or a telephone.
Neighbours contacted the fire service and two units arrived to find the house engulfed in flames, with explosions in the front room sending glass flying on to the driveway. The fire was quickly contained though most of the property was destroyed.
- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
11.45am
A 12-year-old Hastings girl plucked her four-month-old baby cousin from her bed and handed her safely into the arms of a relative minutes before fire destroyed her bedroom on Saturday morning.
But a petrified Ashley Hodgetts was rescued by a passerby because she was too scared to jump from a window
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