Couple rescues mother and baby trapped in burning house, only to have car stolen at A&E

As Jess Nock and Conner Dickson ran into a burning house, they saw a woman banging on the window for help, saying that she and her baby were trapped inside.

Not caring for their own safety, the couple managed to rescue the couple, but Dickson cut his thumb while helping the trapped woman escape and ended up at the local A&E.

But while Dickson was inside receiving stitches, someone stole the couple’s car that had a stroller, a car seat, a front backpack and a crib for their own baby inside.

“It’s like you’re a good Samaritan and then you get kicked in the teeth for it,” Nock’s mother told the Herald.

The couple were driving home after walking their dog when they saw black smoke billowing into the sky shortly after 11 a.m.

“We stopped, my partner called 111 and we just ran to the house,” Nock told the Herald.

They saw a woman frantically banging on the double-glazed window.

“He said she was trapped inside and had a 3-month-old baby.”

Dickson tried to break open the door with his hand and then a chair, but to no avail.

“He somehow got a pole and managed to break the window,” he said.
“It was incredible”.

The concerned mother handed her baby over to Nock, before Dickson helped her out through the broken window, cutting her thumb on the glass in the process.

“I walked away [cradling the baby] because it was so smoky, “Nock said.

“She was absolutely fine, she was a beautiful little girl.”

Three teams of firefighters arrived to put out the fire on Penion Drive and St John treated the mother for smoke inhalation and some minor cuts she sustained while exiting the window.

Dickson and Nock were offered to take them to the hospital with the mother and baby to treat Dickson’s severed hand.

“But we wanted to give them some privacy, so we said we would drive to A&E,” Nock said.

Nock’s sister, who had accompanied the couple and their 6-month-old son on the walk, had been watching the baby during the ordeal.

“I ran to the car and got some formula and our baby’s bottle for the baby,” she said.

The couple drove to Howick’s East Care and parked in the patient parking lot just outside the practice, where Dickson received thumb stitches.

But a few hours later, his car, a cobalt blue Mazda Demio. was gone.

“We thought the house fire was incredible on its own, and then they sewed up my partner at A&E and stole our car,” Nock said.

“It had all of our baby’s stuff in it: the stroller, the car seat, the front backpack, and the portable crib. I just broke down.”

Nock’s mother said it was a low blow to the family from a car, after the morning they had had.

“If they could get the car back, it would be amazing,” he said.

The family has created a Givealittle page, hoping to raise funds for a replacement vehicle.

“My partner is going to be absent from work for a while because of his hand,” Nock said.

“But I’m so glad we were there. What’s a car and a baby seat compared to two lives?”

Police have been contacted to comment on the theft.