Miss-Delectable
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AdelaideNow... Ran back into fire to save deaf daughter
A PREGNANT woman has told how she dragged her deaf daughter through a window to safety from their burning home yesterday.
Tracy Pannell had escaped the home with five of her children when she realised Rebekah, 8, had been unable to hear the commotion of the early morning emergency. She was asleep in the 130-year-old Mannum home.
Returning to the building, she feared she might not be able to get to her daughter. "I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't see where I was going. The smoke was thick," Mrs Pannell said. "I couldn't get through to her through the front door so I had to run around the side and drag her out the window."
Son James, 13, had ripped the fly screen off the window so Mrs Pannell could dive in and rescue Rebekah as flames took hold in the roof.
"If we panicked and left her there, I wouldn't have her. She was still in her bed. It is amazing that any of us got out," she said.
The family was only saved because Mrs Pannell's eldest daughter Kristy, 11, woke to the smell of smoke about 3.30am. Kristy praised her mother.
"I think she was really brave to go into the smoke like that," she said.
"I don't know what woke me up . . . I just woke up at the right time, that's all."
Kristy rushed to her mother's bedroom to warn her after discovering flames in the lounge. She yelled out to her three brothers and two sisters.
Investigators believe a log may have rolled from the fireplace and sparked the blaze. The cause is being investigated.
Mrs Pannell's husband, Vince, was in Adelaide for work and rushed home to be with his children and his wife, who is three months' pregnant. "My only thought when I got the call was everyone was out," he said. "This is what we call a challenge."
Mrs Pannell and children were treated at Mannum Hospital for smoke inhalation and minor injuries.
Country Fire Service volunteers took about an hour to bring the fire under control. Damage was estimated at $100,000.
The building - the town's original post office and bakery - had been renovated by the family in the past 2 1/2 years. It did not have a working smoke alarm.
The family wants caravans set up on the land so they can run their roadside craft and fodder shop and tend farm stock.
A PREGNANT woman has told how she dragged her deaf daughter through a window to safety from their burning home yesterday.
Tracy Pannell had escaped the home with five of her children when she realised Rebekah, 8, had been unable to hear the commotion of the early morning emergency. She was asleep in the 130-year-old Mannum home.
Returning to the building, she feared she might not be able to get to her daughter. "I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't see where I was going. The smoke was thick," Mrs Pannell said. "I couldn't get through to her through the front door so I had to run around the side and drag her out the window."
Son James, 13, had ripped the fly screen off the window so Mrs Pannell could dive in and rescue Rebekah as flames took hold in the roof.
"If we panicked and left her there, I wouldn't have her. She was still in her bed. It is amazing that any of us got out," she said.
The family was only saved because Mrs Pannell's eldest daughter Kristy, 11, woke to the smell of smoke about 3.30am. Kristy praised her mother.
"I think she was really brave to go into the smoke like that," she said.
"I don't know what woke me up . . . I just woke up at the right time, that's all."
Kristy rushed to her mother's bedroom to warn her after discovering flames in the lounge. She yelled out to her three brothers and two sisters.
Investigators believe a log may have rolled from the fireplace and sparked the blaze. The cause is being investigated.
Mrs Pannell's husband, Vince, was in Adelaide for work and rushed home to be with his children and his wife, who is three months' pregnant. "My only thought when I got the call was everyone was out," he said. "This is what we call a challenge."
Mrs Pannell and children were treated at Mannum Hospital for smoke inhalation and minor injuries.
Country Fire Service volunteers took about an hour to bring the fire under control. Damage was estimated at $100,000.
The building - the town's original post office and bakery - had been renovated by the family in the past 2 1/2 years. It did not have a working smoke alarm.
The family wants caravans set up on the land so they can run their roadside craft and fodder shop and tend farm stock.
