Heartbreaking Final Words: Husband Relives Agonizing Escape After Kingston House Fire K-i-lled the Two People He Loved Most
A heartbroken husband has recalled the desperate moments a fast-moving house fire claimed the lives of his wife and a lifelong family friend, saying it all happened in less than three minutes.
Leanne Laver, 62, and family friend Philip Gordon, 70, died when a fire tore through the family’s Kingston home, south of Brisbane, on Tuesday afternoon, police have confirmed.
Emergency crews arrived to find the home fully engulfed in flames, with firefighters spending about an hour bringing the blaze under control.
Four people — Leanne’s husband Sean “Ari” Laver, two of the couple’s children and 24-year-old boarder Lucas Kirby — escaped the fire.
He said the family had been together inside their Adelaide St home when he heard a loud bang just after 3pm.
The couple had been married for 32 and had lived in the house for 35 years.
“I was in the rear bedroom. I have a computer set-up there. I was playing computer games with my children (like) we have for many years,” he told 7NEWS on Wednesday.
“My adopted daughter was in the back bedroom playing with us. My wife was within three metres of the front door sitting at the table.
“I heard a bang. I thought she might have fallen.”
Laver said he ran into the hallway before his wife told him: “Something’s burning.”
“I ran up the hallway and saw smoke starting to pool in the ceiling, so I ran back to get the phone to call the fire brigade and then ran back up the hallway yelling as loud as I could, ‘Fire, fire, grab an animal, get out’ — we have cats.”
Believing they still had time to stop the blaze, Laver 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.
“When we got down the front stairs we looked under the house and it was just all engulfed at the rear. It had obviously started underneath.”
He said the fire intensified almost immediately.
“Within half a minute it was billowing, just walls of black smoke.”
Laver tried to get back inside but was driven back by flames.
“I called out to my wife and I heard her answer. I don’t know what she said.
“I said, ‘Try to make it to the door.’ And there was nothing more.
“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.”
His adopted daughter, Chloe, 23, managed to rescue two of the family’s seven cats as she escaped, while his son Jay, 22, suffered minor burns.
“Our other daughter doesn’t live at home. She came. They’re all absolutely devastated,” Laver said.
Laver said his wife had stage-four cancer.
“She didn’t deserve this. She was fighting stage 4 lymphoma and winning,” he said.
“I thought she was three metres behind me. I thought she would just come down the stairs.”
He urged others to leave immediately if faced with a fire.
“If you have a fire, just grab your loved ones and run.”
Laver said his daughter Chloe had set up a GoFundMe to help the family rebuild after they lost everything in the fire.
He said accepting help did not come easily.
“We’re proud. I’ve never taken help,” he said. “I don’t want any for me, but my children.”
Laver said the family had no insurance on the home, explaining: “You don’t do that on pensions when you’re raising children.”
Chloe wrote in the fundraiser the family had escaped “with just the clothes on our backs, but our lives have been forever changed”.
Even the clothes Laver was wearing on Wednesday had been bought for him by police officers.
“Right now, we have absolutely nothing and nowhere to turn,” she wrote, adding the fire also claimed five of the family’s seven cats, two parrots and two tanks of fish.
She described Leanne as the family’s “unwavering support system” and remembered “our brave Uncle Phil, who selflessly ran back into the flames to try and save her”.
Laver echoed that tribute, describing his wife as “the most supportive woman”.
“I’ve never been loved like that before, or loved anyone like that since,” he said.
The couple had been together for 42 years after meeting as teenagers.
The couple had spent 17 years trying to have children after losing their first baby to an ectopic pregnancy.
Told they would never become parents, they were overjoyed when Leanne unexpectedly fell pregnant with their eldest daughter during a post-operative check-up.
Their son Jay was born soon afterwards.
They later took in Chloe, who had experienced a difficult upbringing and had lived with the family since she was 12.
While Queensland law prevented them from formally adopting her as an adult, Chloe took the Laver family name last year.
Laver said Leanne had recently been looking forward to finally taking the cruise they had postponed after her cancer diagnosis.
“I promised her that when her treatment ended … we would go away at the end of the year,” he said.
Asked how he wanted his wife to be remembered, Laver replied: “Devoted, steadfast, unwavering, brave, laughing. Self-sacrificing. Very brave. Always.”
He also paid tribute to lifelong family friend Philip Gordon, whom he calls “a brother” despite not being biologically related.
The two had lived together for decades after meeting as teenagers.
“He was as genuine as the day was long,” Laver said.
“I met him when I was 17 and he was 27. We have lived together virtually ever since.
“Leanne never turned anyone away. We always took in kids that had nowhere to go, and any animal that needed a home.”
Laver said he has struggled with the knowledge he survived, admitting he had questioned whether he should have gone back inside, despite knowing the fire had become impossible to enter.
“I loved her. And I love her still. And I had failed her. I should have gone back. I knew it was death. I should have gone back anyway.
“I should have gone back into that house and died with her.”
Overcome with emotion, Laver ended the interview with a message for others.
“Everyone, hug the people you love every day. Tomorrow is not written.”
Queensland Police said investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.
