A mother and daughter have died in a horrific house fire after she went back into the burning building in a desperate attempt to save her child.
Veronica Carmady, 46, and her six-year-old daughter Aurora were unable to escape and both died in the fire, with a local saying ‘the screaming just stopped’.
A neighbour told Daily Mail they heard screams coming from the home on St Johns Road in the south-western Sydney suburb of Heckenberg.
‘The little girl was screaming for help,’ the neighbour said.
‘Help, help, I need help.’
The woman said she was traumatised by what she heard and saw.
‘I can’t get it out of my head, I’ll never forget those frightened screams.’
An older man was helped out of the home with serious burns all over his body.
‘I saw an an old bloke with grey hair being taken away by ambos – he didn’t look like he was in a good way,’ the neighbour added.
Several people saw Ms Carmady outside the home after the fire broke out before she went back inside to search for Aurora.
Local man Jaykay Moon ran to help those inside, using a ladder to break through a window and save a two-year-old girl.
‘All we heard was screaming,’ the man’s 17-year-old son Jaykay Jr told news.com.au.
‘One of the parents was outside screaming that his kids were still inside.’
‘Hearing the child’s scream was traumatising,’ his mother Tia Moon added.
‘(Then) the screaming just stopped.’
Emergency services were called to the home at about 12.40am on Wednesday where they found the home engulfed in flames.
After entering the home, police and fire crew made the heartbreaking discovery of two bodies.
‘There was nothing we could do, the fire had already taken hold with flames venting out the front windows,’ Fire and Rescue NSW superintendent Adam Dewberry told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
One neighbour told the Today show his father spotted the flames and raced towards the fire to help save those trapped inside the home.
The man, armed with a bat, ran to the back of the house and swung at the windows, smashing the glass.
The smashed window allowed another person to quickly enter the house and pull a little girl to safety.
Eight people – including four children and four adults – who were inside the home when the flames took hold managed to escape.
The survivors were treated at the scene.
A two-year-old girl was rushed to Westmead Children’s Hospital, where she remains in a critical condition.
A 50-year-old man is also fighting for his life at Concord Hospital after suffering potentially fatal burns to his airway.
A 14-year-old girl was taken to Liverpool Hospital.
A boy, aged two, a seven-year-old girl, a man aged 36 and two women aged 37 and 51, were checked at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics.
The tragedy came just days after Ms Carmady shared a post on social media saying ‘Never regret a day in your life’.
‘Good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience,’ her post read.
‘Worst days give you lessons, and best days give you memories.’
A heartbreaking post from two weeks ago said: ‘You could die at any moment – so eat that cake.’
Police established a crime scene to investigate the circumstances surrounding the fire.
‘This home is completely gutted, it’s absolutely been destroyed. Fire ripped through the home,’ Superintendent Dewberry said.
‘It’s absolutely just a shell of itself, so they’re sifting through to have a look at where and how this fire actually started.’
Superintendent Dewberry said there was no indication that the home had working smoke alarms.
‘It doesn’t matter what starts the fire but we do know working smoke alarms save lives,’ he said.
‘Smoke alarms are that first line of defence for you to protect yourself, your family and your loved ones.’
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
The fire occurred just one day after a 21-year-old Pakistani national and Uber delivery driver Haider Ali lost his life in a house fire in Guildford.
Early investigations suggest that the Guildford blaze was caused by an e-bike battery catching fire due to the use of an incompatible charger on a food delivery bike.
Fire and Rescue NSW urged e-bike owners owners to be ‘very cautious’ with how they charge the lithium batteries, which can overheat and catch fire if not monitored, and encouraged everyone to check their smoke alarms are in working order.