Source: www.thechronicle.com.au

08.05.2007

BY Susan Searle

A HIGHFIELDS couple looked at their charred bedroom yesterday and vowed if it had not been for the smoke alarm outside the door, their four children would be orphans today.

Dhugall and Katrina Chimes firmly believe that as they grapple with what may have been.

''If it wasn't for the smoke alarm we would have been dead,'' Mr Chimes said.

Still all too real were the events earlier in the morning and the piercing sound that awoke them about 12.20am.

A candle had ignited the bedroom curtains.

''We were asleep when the alarm went off... it was a shocking sound .

.. we woke quickly and rudely,'' Mrs Chimes said. ''There was no hint there was a fire until then and it was well alight.''

The couple can see the real value in new legislation requiring all homes and units throughout Queensland to be fitted with smoke alarms from July 1.

They rang 000 and the Queensland Fire and Rescue teams raced to the Donaghy Court address.

Mrs Chimes laughed as she recalled her husband ordering her to get a bucket.

He slammed the bedroom door and ran outside to douse the flames with the garden hose.

The fire was under control by the time the firefighters arrived.

The simple act of closing the bedroom door stopped the fire from spreading to the remainder of the wooden structure.

''He saved the whole house from going down,'' Mrs Chimes said.

Their children were not at home.

The couple had moved across the street and spent the rest of the night at their neighbours. They have been working in Brisbane and coming home at weekends.

Their home of almost seven years is for sale.

The main bedroom was charred, the sofa partially burnt, the television, DVD and photo albums in the entertainment cabinet water-logged.

Only the metal frame of the couple's most recent portrait sat empty on the wall.

Soot, smoke and paint were peeling from the walls. But, thanks to the smoke alarm, they were safe.