By Laura Wakely
TWO children were lucky to escape injury after accidentally starting a fire at their St Albans home.
The children were playing with a candle in the garage of their home in Lesley St when the flame ignited material inside the garage.
The fire had engulfed the interior of the garage before the MFB were able to extinguish the flames.
The fire caused extensive damage to the structure, as well as some damage to the rear of the home.
The incident occurred just days before a five-year-old girl was left with critical burns to her body after playing with matches in Nunawading.
Paramedic Steve Grove said the girl suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body.
“Intensive care paramedics had to put the girl into a coma and put a small breathing tube into her lungs so that if swelling did occur we could still pass air in and out of her lungs,” he said.
“She was in a considerable amount of pain and distress as you can imagine and she had a lot of pain relief drugs before she was put into a coma.”
Emergency services have warned parents to keep an extra eye on children during the school holidays.
