A landlord was repeatedly warned about improperly installed smoke alarms before a house fire that killed a father and five children in Queensland in 2023, a coroner has heard. Deputy state coroner Donald MacKenzie held a pre-inquest conference into the Russell Island deaths on Tuesday. No witness recalls hearing the sound of an alarm during the blaze, it heard.
The owner was fined $774 for improper installation in 2024, the maximum possible penalty under Queensland law. A conviction was not recorded. The fire in the two-storey wooden Queenslander broke out on 6 August 2023.
The house had been moved to the island and then renovated in 2013 before being rented privately. Five children – two brothers aged four and others aged three, 10 and 11 – died in the blaze. Their father, 34, died after running into the fire to rescue them.
None can be identified for legal reasons. The children’s mother and father had fallen asleep in a converted “chill out” area underneath the house. The father awoke to see thick black smoke and immediately raced upstairs, where the children were sleeping.
His partner also tried to get into the house, but was forced back by the fire. Another adult woman leapt off a balcony to safety and survived. The Queensland fire department does not have a station on Russell Island, and vehicles must be ferried over in an emergency, a process that takes about 45-60 minutes, the court heard.
As a result, it was a paramedic who first arrived at the scene, arriving within minutes at about 6.26am. He asked if anyone else was inside, to which [the mother} replied: her five children, and lost all ability to communicate.” The paramedic also tried to get into the building but was halted by the intense blaze. He instead focused on evacuating neighbouring homes.
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