A devastated husband has described the terrifying speed of a house fire that killed his wife and a lifelong family friend at their Kingston home south of Brisbane on Tuesday afternoon, saying the entire tragedy unfolded in less than three minutes.
Leanne Laver, 62, and family friend Philip Gordon, 70, died when fire tore through the family's Adelaide Street home in Kingston. Emergency services arrived to find the property fully engulfed in flames and spent approximately an hour bringing the blaze under control.
The desperate scramble to escape the Kingston house fire
Sean "Ari" Laver, who had been married to Leanne for 32 years and lived in the home for 35, was playing computer games with his children in the rear bedroom just after 3pm when he heard a loud bang. His wife was sitting at a table near the front of the house — roughly three metres from the front door — when he ran into the hallway.
"My wife was within three metres of the front door sitting at the table. I heard a bang. I thought she might have fallen," he said.
When Leanne told him something was burning, Ari ran up the hallway and spotted smoke pooling in the ceiling. He raced back to call emergency services, then returned, shouting for everyone to grab the family's cats and get out.
Believing they still had time to fight the blaze, Ari and his son Jay grabbed a garden hose. "There were no flames in the house, just smoke. I thought we had a chance to stop it," he said. But when the pair reached the front stairs and looked underneath the house, the rear was already completely engulfed. The fire had apparently started beneath the building.
Within half a minute, he said, walls of black smoke were billowing from the structure. Ari tried to re-enter the home but was beaten back by flames. He called out to his wife and heard her respond — though he could not make out her words.
"I said, 'Try to make it to the door.' And there was nothing more," he said.
"Less than three minutes from the first sound to just being driven back by the heat — the cars were exploding. We were on the footpath in our underwear with a phone, that's it."
Four survivors, including son with minor burns
Four people escaped the fire: Ari, two of the couple's children, and a 24-year-old boarder named Lucas Kirby. Ari's adopted daughter Chloe, 23, managed to rescue two of the family's seven cats as she fled. His son Jay, 22, suffered minor burns. A third daughter who does not live at the home came to be with the family afterwards.
"They're all absolutely devastated," Ari said.
'She was fighting stage-four lymphoma and winning'
Ari revealed that his wife had been battling a serious illness at the time of her death, making the loss even more painful to comprehend.
"She didn't deserve this. She was fighting stage-four lymphoma and winning," he said, visibly emotional.
"I thought she was three metres behind me. I thought she would just come down the stairs."
Investigators are continuing to work to determine the cause of the fire. Ari urged anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation to leave immediately without hesitation, rather than attempting to fight the blaze.
Investigation ongoing
Authorities have confirmed the deaths of both Leanne Laver and Philip Gordon, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation. The scale and speed of the blaze — reducing a family home of 35 years to ruins in minutes — has left the surviving family members with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
The tragedy serves as a stark reminder of how rapidly a house fire can escalate. Those concerned about fire safety in their homes are encouraged to ensure working smoke alarms are installed and to establish a clear evacuation plan.
