Update on distraught mother who escaped deadly house fire
A heart-broken mother has been left “hysterical” after her five sons and their “excellent” father were killed in a house fire in north Queensland on Sunday.
The family home was engulfed in flames, with the blaze claiming the lives of Zackary, 11, Harry, 10, four-year-old twins Kyza and Koah and Nicky, 3, and their father Wayne Godinet.
The children’s mother, Samantha Stephenson, was able to escape the fire, with witnesses saying Godinet ran back into the home to save Stephenson and the boys when he became trapped.
In the wake of the tragedy, family friend Simon Gordon said the “kids came first” for Godinet and his partner.
“She was a loving mother to the children,” Gordon told Sunrise on Tuesday.
“What she is going through is unbelievable.”
“Every time I ever met the family, the kids came first. They love the kids.”
Another family friend, Peter MacLoughlin, told 7NEWS Godinet was an “excellent father”.
“The people in this community will miss him walking the children to school,” he said.
“They loved those kids.”
He went on to say that Stephenson was “hysterical” as the tragedy unfolded.
Gordon said Stephenson was being supported by a “close-knit network” of loved ones, while Godinet’s family travelled from New Zealand and other parts of Australia to Russell Island.
He said the family wanted to express gratitude to first responders to the emergency, including members of the community, some of whom are volunteer firefighters.
“With the limited resources we’ve got on the island, people need to remember that the first people on the scene were the neighbours ... and the volunteer firefighters,” he said.
“Some of these firefighters were friends of the family. Their kids know their kids. They were on the scene and they must be going through hell right now.”
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