Teachers from Kawaha Point School, across the road, rushed over to evacuate the children. Photo / Supplied
Teachers from Kawaha Point School, across the road, rushed over to evacuate the children. Photo / Supplied
Windows exploded in a burning house as babies slept at the daycare next door and children played at the school over the road. Then the teachers stepped up, and stepped in.
Kawaha Point teachers are being praised for their swift actions to evacuate children when a house next door caughtfire.
A fire rapidly engulfed a home on Aquarius Drive on Wednesday just after 2pm, as parents and neighbours watched in shock.
Beryl Sturt, 60, had just been to Countdown and was walking up the street when fire engines went past her.
Of the four children in her legal custody, she had a boy at BestStart Kawaha Point Daycare, and three girls at Kawaha Point School. The facilities were across the road from each other.
BestStart Kawaha Point centre manager Margaret Day was worried the rapidly growing flames would catch on to the sails. Photo / Supplied
"As I looked in the horizon, I could see the fire and I just panicked," she said.
"I just thought, it's either the school or it's the daycare."
"Roaring down the road" with other parents, she reached the scene to find a brick house next to the daycare engulfed in flames. The school is across the road.
A teacher from Kawaha Point School, who did not want to be named, said first, plumes of thick black smoke billowed from the house and he watched a man run from the building.
The man was a neighbour who had checked if anyone was inside. He found no one.
"I told him he was blimming brave," the teacher said.
He said two staff members who had children at the centre went across the road to help evacuate the children. The 4-year-olds were doing transition visits at the time.
"By this time, flames were erupting out the door ... exploding out of the windows, smashing glass, melting the plastic guttering and singeing the surrounding grass."
He and the caretaker double-checked in and around the centre to make sure no one was left behind.
"The heat was immense."
The caretaker then doused the back fence of the centre with a hose to keep it wet as the flames got closer.
Teachers from Kawaha Point School, across the road, rushed over to evacuate the children. Photo / Supplied
BestStart Kawaha Point centre manager Margaret Day said a teacher first noticed the house fire next door.
Day watched it fill with smoke while she was on the phone to firefighters.
All she could think about as she watched the flames grow was the safety of the 32 children, she said, fearing the sunshades would catch alight.
"It's only a fence that separates us."
Staff worked to move the children across the road, older children drawing on monthly fire drills and lining up as soon as teachers called "fire".
The cause of the fire which destroyed a house on Kawaha Point is still unknown. Photo / Stephen Parker
A Fire and Emergency spokesman said four crews battled the blaze. It was three hours before the last truck left.
He said no one was in the house and there were no injures.
