Two-year-old Stephen Marshall suffered severe burns to his neck, face and hands Tuesday afternoon when the car he was sitting in caught alight.

He was under sedation at Westmead Children’s Hospital yesterday.

His mother had driven to her mother’s house on Davidson Drive, in East Dubbo, to collect her other two sons and make a quick phone call.

By the time it took for her to walk the few metres from the car, parked on the front lawn, around the back of the house, the car had ignited.

“I came to get the two boys and went inside and it just went ‘boom’,” Sheena Usher said.

Her two children yelled, “Mummy, Mummy the car’s on fire” as Ms Usher ran out the front to see her mother at the car, pulling Stephen out of the back.

The car was already in “a big ball of flames”, she said.

Lynne Usher was in the lounge room when she saw the fire from the window. She said she yelled out to her daughter and ran to the aid of her grandson, strapped in the back seat, sustaining burns as she reached into the burning car to rescue Stephen.

“It was really huge and the black smoke was humungous,” she said.

“All I saw was a pair of arms coming out at me and I undid the seat belt and pulled him out.”

Stephen was airlifted to Westmead Children’s Hospital on Tuesday night and yesterday was still under sedation in a critical but stable condition in the Intensive Care Unit.

Sheena was unable to go with him to Sydney at the time due to the rough weather in Sydney.

Instead she waited at her mother’s home, before being taken to Sydney later that night to be with him.

She said the burns on his hands were bad, but burns to the head face and neck had been “cleaned up”.

The family were very thankful yesterday for the assistance they had received.

“We would like to thank the police, fire and ambulance and all the people involved,” Sheena said.

They expressed a special thank you to Shona and Mark Harris, residents of Davidson Drive, who had taken care of Stephen’s two older brothers at the time.

Emergency services responded to the incident at 4.45 Tuesday afternoon.

At point of arrival the car was alight on the front lawn of the house, and firefighters were informed Stephen had been burnt.

Firefighters started first aid immediately.

The car was extinguished and the home ventilated from smoke.

Orana police yesterday thanked passers-by who stopped to assist the family.

Police are appealing to members of the public who may have seen the incident and have not spoken to police to come forward to provide information.

A police spokesperson said yesterday, the investigation was ongoing and because of the fire it was referred to the coroner.

morgan.downs@

ruralpress.com