4-year-old Aussie boy dies trying to shield his baby brother, sister in garden shed blaze
When a fire broke out at his home in a suburb in Australia, four-year-old Isaac McGregor’s first instinct was to use his tiny body to shield his baby brother and sister from the flames.
Sadly, despite his heroic effort, his brother Saige, 3, and 18-month-old sister Ashlynn died at the scene.
Rescuers took Isaac and his six-year-old sister Mavis to hospital.
But while Mavis is still in intensive care for severe burns, a close friend of the family announced on the donors’ site GoFundMe on Wednesday that Isaac “had grown his wings and reunited with his baby brother and sister”.
Isaac had sustained burns on 80 per cent of his body.
The fire broke out on Sunday in the home of Ms Jasmine Beck, 26, in Corio, south-west of Melbourne.
The children were playing inside a garden shed when a couch there suddenly caught fire.
Ms Beck dashed towards the shed when she noticed acrid smoke wafting inside her home.
“She just smelled flames, and she ran out there. The couch was on fire. She had to move the couch and had to pull the kids’ out, and they couldn’t get their way out because it was engulfed in flames,” Ms Sarah Guardiano, an aunt of the children, told 7News Australia.
Mr Kane McGregor, the children’s father, told reporters Ms Beck dragged Mavis first, while Isaac “had the other two huddled under him so they wouldn’t burn”.
He said Isaac was thought to have died at the scene, but rescuers managed to revive him and took him to hospital.
“What four-year-old huddles over their two little siblings? I couldn’t be any prouder of him really,” he said.
Mr McGregor was in Melbourne when the fire broke out.
But before he left for Melbourne earlier that day, he remembered Isaac running up to him to hug and kiss him.
“An hour later, I get the phone call… I haven’t dealt with it yet. I’m just here with the other two,” he said.
A note on the GofundMe website said Isaac “will always be remembered as the heroic young boy who gave his life trying to protect his siblings”.
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