{"id":70168,"date":"2026-08-12T07:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/70168\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T07:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:07:11","slug":"melbourne-mothers-advice-after-brave-escape-with-son-from-horrific-house-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/70168\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne mother\u2019s advice after brave escape with son from horrific house fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young mother who smashed through a window to escape a Melbourne<\/a> house fire with her son has issued a strong message to others about how fast a blaze develops.<\/p>\n

The fire started in Laura Gulbin\u2019s Bundoora home when a power bank ignited and quickly started devouring the 1970s property she had been lovingly renovating over the past year.<\/p>\n

The smoke alarm was triggered early and thinking the fire was manageable and she had plenty of time to get out, she went to grab her keys.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire was relatively small and at one stage I thought, I could try and get this out myself,\u201d she told 7NEWS.com.au on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I could not believe how fast it was going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The danger all became clear when she ran to get her car keys from a high-up shelf where she keeps them out of reach of her children.<\/p>\n

As she reached for them she breathed in the toxic air that had risen to the ceiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been an easy escape, but because of the carbon monoxide and the gas, I almost passed out trying to access my keys from high up,\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n

Realising the fire had rapidly escalated, she moved to plan B.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that I could get out through the windows if I smashed it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018And then I jumped\u2019<\/p>\n

Laura was home with her son Clancy, who has autism and is non-verbal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was amazing,\u201d Laura said. \u201cHe stuck with me, and when I smashed the glass and told him to climb out, he did exactly that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I jumped.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only a small jump to the floor below, but once there, Laura came up against her next challenge.<\/p>\n

As her home is located in part of a court with others surrounding it, she needed to access the garage internally to get out.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was locked up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Gulbin\u2019s Bundoora\u00a0home was rapidly gutted in the fire. Credit: GoFundMe<\/p>\n

Laura called out for help as the inferno raged on, and her neighbour Dan sprang into action.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just incredible,\u201d she said. \u201cHe looked over the fence, saw that we were okay and climbed over.\u201d<\/p>\n

He helped Laura to open a garage door internally, so that she could get outside where she called firefighters and Clancy\u2019s dad.<\/p>\n

She said Dan\u2019s heroic actions have reminded her of the importance of \u201cold-school neighbour connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An extraordinary act of courage\u2019<\/p>\n

Melissa Gulbin, who has organised a GoFundMe<\/a> to support Laura and her family, called the escape \u201can extraordinary act of courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLaura managed to save both herself and her special needs son, Clancy, by smashing a window to escape the flames.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clancy has now been discharged from hospital, and Laura is expected to make a full recovery after she was in the ICU with burns to her throat.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Gulbin is grateful that she and her son escaped the blaze, and for the community that helped to save their lives. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

But Melissa said, \u201cThe fire has left her with almost nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough Laura\u2019s home is insured, contents were not covered. This means there are immediate essential costs, as well as the significant expense of setting up a home again once she is able to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing that remains is gratitude for their survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very excited to get my own house about a year ago and I\u2019ve just been chipping away at, you know, renovating what hadn\u2019t been touched from the 1970s,\u201d Laura said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you and your loved ones are the most important things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about getting yourself out as fast as you can, and not worrying about stuff, because stuff comes and goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young mother who smashed through a window to escape a Melbourne house fire with her son has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1792,263,260,152,15432],"class_list":["post-70168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-disaster-and-emergency","tag-fires","tag-melbourne","tag-news","tag-vic-fires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}