A Queensland father has begged forgiveness for not being by the side of his two young children when they died in a house fire.<\/p>\n
Jake Symons, 21, has been barely able to speak since being told his two kids – Maddison, 20 months, and Desmond, five months – were killed in a fire at the family home on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Family friend Mathew Chilly, 36, and a teenager whose name has not been released, also died in the central Queensland fire.<\/p>\n
The devastated father, who was undergoing cancer treatment, posted emotional and loving tributes to his children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Dad’s best little mate,” Mr Symons wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of Desmond.<\/p>\n
“I had so many things I wanted to show u and watch u grow. We’ll have that vb and kick the footy around in the next life – won’t be long.”<\/p>\n
He described his “little Maddie Moo” as his everything.<\/p>\n
“My first love, my everything. Dad’s number one,” he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Baby, I’m sorry I wasn’t there my little princess rough nut. I’m sorry my big girl I wasn’t there, won’t be long.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Just a bad dream I won’t wake up from because it’s just not real, can’t believe this.”<\/p>\n
Family and friends have rallied around the grieving father, who is now staying with close relatives as they struggle to come to terms with the loss.<\/p>\n
A fundraising page has been launched for the family.<\/p>\n
“Our family is shattered – Jake lived for his kids,” aunt Sally Woulfe told AAP.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He is in a world of pain.”<\/p>\n
Mr Symons moved to the Queensland town of Emerald, about 270km west of Rockhampton, to work as an apprentice mechanic before being diagnosed with cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He lost his job, and the young family struggled to make ends meet before moving into social housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After having a part of his stomach removed, the family said Mr Symons was undergoing specialist treatment in Brisbane and was to return home on the day of the tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Jake has nothing left – his beautiful children are gone, and everything he owned was lost in the fire. He’s got cancer and was in Brisbane for treatment,” they said.<\/p>\n
“That’s why I started the fundraiser – they are in crisis. They have no money, no insurance, nothing.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The GoFundMe campaign had raised about $A7000 by Friday afternoon as pledges poured in from around the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Maddison was full of life and laughter, always smiling and curious about the world around her,” Ms Woulfe said.<\/p>\n
“Little Desmond was a gentle, happy baby whose laughter brought light to everyone who met him. Their bond was pure love – and they were taken far too soon.”<\/p>\n
Emergency services arrived within minutes of the blaze erupting before 7am on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Neighbours with garden hoses valiantly tried to control the fire, and two anguished survivors who escaped with minor injuries have since been released from the hospital.<\/p>\n
Investigations are under way with a faulty e-scooter a possible source, police confirmed.<\/p>\n
“We’re still investigating. So our forensic and scientific teams are there examining the scene,” Inspector Brett Richard said on Friday.<\/p>\n
“It’s just too early to tell what the cause was.”<\/p>\n
Police have launched an appeal for information and witnesses as the investigation into the incident continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Our main concern is to provide answers for the family. It’s a tragedy, and we want to provide them with as many answers as we can,” Insp Richard said.<\/p>\n
“It takes as long as it takes … we will continue until we can provide those answers.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tragedy comes weeks after an alleged arson attack killed a mother and two young boys at Gladstone on October 15.<\/p>\n
Jordana Johnson, 36, and her 12-year-old son Jordan Norris were killed, along with his friend Chazz Mather, also aged 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland father has begged forgiveness for not being by the side of his two young children when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-122735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}