LUCKY ESCAPE
Single mum-of-four launches crowdfunding page after losing everything in a fire that ripped through her home in just four minutes
A SINGLE mum-of-four was lucky to escape alive after a fire ripped through her home in just four minutes.
Emily Gonzalez and her children - sons Levi, 8, and Harley, 6, Coby, 4, and daughter Ivy, 2 - have been left with just the clothes on their back as they lost everything to ferocious flames.
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The 28-year-old woman from New South Wales, Australia has revealed how "devastating" it was to watch property she had lived in with her family for 15 months, after staying at a homeless shelter, be burned to the ground.
Emily - who is a domestic violence survivor - has explained how she was alerted to smoke by her youngest child, who was watching a film with his sister Ivy while Levi and Harley were at school.
She has revealed how she was blow drying her hair after taking a shower when Coby came to alert her smoke in the lounge.
"'So I put the kids [Coby and Ivy] on the trampoline so they could play, and I went back to look at what was causing the smoke. Eventually I found a whole wall on fire and the flames were touching the roof," the mum told .
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Emily recalled how there had been no smoke alarm to give them any warning.
She tried to put out the flames with a saucepan full of water before resorting to a garden hose.
"By the time I went back in, there was a thick, black smoke. I couldn't even step into the room, the fire melted the garden hose. I needed to get out or I wouldn't make it out," she said.
"Within four minutes, the entire house was engulfed in flames. It was devastating. I just stood there... it was really hard to watch everything go up in flames."
An emergency services operator on the phone told her to stop risking her life and get out of the property.
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Within just minutes, Emily and her kids had been left with just the clothes on their back after not having time to grab anything.
She revealed how she was forced to stand in front of the home and watch as flames and smoke poured out.
Possessions lost included her father's ashes and her grandmother's engagement ring.
She has praised her son Coby for "saving us" after he alerted her to smoke, and has revealed he wants to be a fireman when he grows up.
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They had moved into the property, provided by the Department of Housing, and "started everything from scratch" after spending six months in a homeless shelter.
Authorities are still investigating what caused the fire, despite there being no electrical items in the room where it began, and why only one of three smoke alarms went off - and, even then, only when it was being engulfed by flames.
Emily has set up a to help rebuild her and her children's lives and has already reached her $5,000 target.
"I lost so much then and now I’ve lost absolutely everything I worked so hard to build," she wrote.
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