Holli Bowmer was visiting her neighbour Veronica Carmady on Tuesday night, with her partner and two kids.
“We wouldn’t usually go there that late, but we went there to help put the finishing touches on the pool.”
Holli’s partner Lucas was helping Veronica’s partner Chris in the backyard of the St Johns Road property.
They were leaving when Holli’s daughter Poppi spotted smoke coming from the lounge room.
“Then I heard Lucas scream, ‘Get out! Get out!'”
She grabbed her two-year-old son Eli and went to an open window.
“I didn’t think I could make it down … but I had to … so I just had the baby and jumped down, and Poppi was too scared to jump so our friend Paula, who was also there, threw her out the window.”
It was at that moment 46-year-old Veronica went back inside for her six-year-old daughter Aurora.
“She went back in, I think, a few times … There’s no way she would have left them in there.”
Veronica and Aurora never made it back out.
Holli’s partner had also gone back inside several times to help.
With the assistance of neighbours, Lucas smashed open a window and pulled Veronica’s two-year-old daughter Brooklyn from the burning home.
Once emergency crews arrived, 50-year-old Lucas was taken to Concord Hospital where he remains in a critical condition.
Brooklyn is in a coma at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead after suffering severe smoke inhalation.
“She’s a warrior that kid, she’s not going anywhere,” her older brother Nathan Wilson said.
“She’s doing well, they’re hoping to take the tube out tomorrow to see if she can breathe on her own. Hopefully if all is good she should be home next week.”
Floral tributes have grown at the scene with messages for Aurora and Veronica.
The home remains a crime scene as investigators continue to work towards finding what sparked the ferocious blaze.
