Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - MINI: We Spoke With A Woman Who Saved A 6 y/o Girl From A Burning House

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

Emma Chaddock from Motueka recently woke up early one morning to her neighbour screaming that her house was on fire & that her daughter was inside. Emma did an incredible thing (that is usually not advised) and went into the inferno to save the daughter. If she was 20 seconds later, the outcome would've been completely different. This is an incredible story from an incredible woman!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits with Jono and Ben, New Zealand's breakfast. Wow, oh wow. Can you make Jono and Ben go wow? Wow. Wow. It's Oh Wow Wednesday. Yes, these are the most jaw-dropping calls on radio. If you aren't phoning your plastic surgeon to book in for a jaw reconstruction after this,

well then there's nothing else we can do. But if you think you do have a story for Wow Wednesday wednesday feel free to text it through 4487 and you can join us next week on the program because today we're heading to uh mochueca just out of nelson and the wonderful emma from uh mochueca hello hi how are you going lovely to have you on uh mott bloody great place i remember i once did a radio promo in mott about 10 years ago, and I still haven't recovered. It was wild. Were you there that night?

Oh, gosh, no. Yeah, no. Listen, I wish I wasn't there either, but I tell you what, stuff went on in Mott. Yeah, well, stuff went on for you, Emma. I mean, you. Tell us about how you made news last week. Yeah.

Well, I guess I woke up to some screaming outside my window, looked out my window, and my neighbour's house was on fire. Oh, dear God. Really? I'm looking at the footage of it. They've got some online. There's huge flames, like massive. Yeah.

When I woke up to it, there was a screaming woman outside screaming for a child. So what I did was I ran out in my pyjamas. Did you have your good jammies on? I did. I had pink and grey. They were beautiful. I hope

you weren't wearing those bloody flammable jammies that you buy. You buy pyjamas for kids and they're like, these are highly flammable. Well, not the situation for these, I imagine. No. I didn't have opportunity to um change into my fire which i don't want um but um what i did do was um run out of the house without any shoes on as well if you're going into a burning building do please put shoes on yeah so i ran down the drive and ran up her drive and she was screaming for a child i decided that um since i was the only person there, I'd go look for her.

You went into the burning inferno, bare feet. Yeah. With your pyjamas on. Talk us through what it's like being inside a burning house. It's not like the movies. They make it look quite easy. It sucks. I imagine smoke would just fill your lungs.

It's horrible. The smoke's hot. Well, yeah. Yeah. You don't really think about that. I imagine it burns your lungs, burns your eyes, and your feet would be burning as well because you're barefoot. Did you crawl along the ground, Emma?

No. I didn't know the layout of thefoot. Did you crawl along the ground, Emma? No. I didn't know the layout of the house. So you just went in cold. There was no direction as to where the child might be. No. I went into the corner bedroom window because that was on the latch, so I climbed up and pulled myself through there.

I just went into the hall and stayed next to it, so I didn't lose my bearings. And so you found the child. Was the child asleep? No, she was actually on the phone to the emergency services down the bottom of the hall. So what I did was I called for her. As I went into the hall, to the left of me was a door and the flames started to come underneath it and you could hear the roar of the fire and so what I did was I just thought if I go past that door I don't know that I'm getting out I need her to come to me because I don't know the layout of this house if I get stuck down there well I've I've got my family I've've got my kids to consider as well

and so I just stood there, called her, she came to me and as we got into the bedroom and got to the window, the hall filled up with flames. Oh my goodness. This is a crazy story and so you're by the window where you entered now with the girl. Yeah. How old is she? Six. Six? And she's on the phone to emergency services.

That's very smart. I know. Wasn't it just? Well, you're a hero. Yeah, you saved her life. That's incredible. Yeah. And so you climbed out of the window with the daughter.

Yeah. What's the first thing the mum says to you at the end of the drive? She was a bit incoherent. She, I think, was in shock and stuff. I took the phone off the little girl. I gave my kids the responsibility. Right, you go take her into the house. She doesn't need to see a house burn.

My kids went and took her into the house, she doesn't need to see her house burn. My kids went and took her into the house and looked after her. And I took the mum down the bottom of the driveway and I just carried on talking to emergency services. And the house just burns down in front of your eyes as you're watching from the end of the driveway. Yeah, yeah. And we got the place and everything there. I think what was hard is we had to leave our house as well, and we were just like, oh, my gosh, is that our house gone as well? And so they don't obviously know the cause of the fire as well, I understand.

No, no. Jeez, you are a Kiwi hero. Yeah. I'm going to download the form for the Kiwi Bank New Zealander of the Year Yeah, deservedly That is an insane story And I imagine after it's all happened What do you do?

What's the first thing you do after you've saved someone Or someone's child From a burning house How do you decompress from that? I don't know Honestly, I don't know I'm still I think I'm still processing I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. I'm still, I think I'm still processing. I don't feel any different. My 15-year-old son is amazing at keeping me real. He said, don't let it just went into a burning house. Stay humble.

The old New Zealand tall poppy chopping machine. It's alive and well, isn't it? But do you find that, did you kind of just go into, I guess, autopilot in a way? Because I guess you wouldn't have had time to really think about things too much. You just kind of just, you know, just kind of go with your instincts. Yeah, I went with my instincts. I was really pleased that I had fear, though. I was able to think logically whilst I was in there.

What did the emergency services people say to you? They said to me, don't jump into burning houses. We advised against that. Yeah. Yeah. And you're like, oh, my bad. Sorry. Do you know what I've just done?

Yeah. I did say I hadn't planned to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But also, he did say as well that I'd saved the little girl's life. My God, this story just could have been so tragic. I don't

know what to say to someone. Either in those situations, you either step up or you don't. And you certainly rose to the occasion. Congratulations. That's phenomenal. The mother must just be, she must owe you her life. With the mother, I think, I'm not sure if she's still in hospital or not

because she had burns and that. Oh, jeez. Yeah, I'm not quite sure. All I'm pleased is that that little girl gets to live another day. And to be honest with you, I'd hope that there'd be people around to do that with my kids. Yeah. Oh, you're a hero. You really are.

Emma, thank you so much for sharing that story with us. And, yeah, just incredible what you did for that family and putting yourself out there. So, wow. I'm lost for words. Which is not ideal when you're a radio announcer. Can you wrap this bit up for us Emma? Can you say some stuff?

Oh I don't know There we go, that'll do Thank you so much for your time Want more Jono and Ben? You can wake up with the boys weekdays from 6 on The Hits And via the iHeartRadio app Jono and Ben on The Hits Breakfast Friends of Skinny