Women and children first
This week there was a tragic house fire in Brisbane in which eleven women and children are reported to have been burned to death. The outpouring of grief was immense.
The survivors, the relatives and friends of the dead, and indeed the entire nation, are all still trying to come to terms with the awfulness of this tragedy.
Three men were the only ones who made it out alive.
At the risk of being accused of gross insensitivity, and because no one has asked it yet, I need to ask a question which won't stop shouting at me from within my head:
Whatever happened to the maxim "Women and children first"?
No disrespect intended.
The survivors, the relatives and friends of the dead, and indeed the entire nation, are all still trying to come to terms with the awfulness of this tragedy.
Three men were the only ones who made it out alive.
At the risk of being accused of gross insensitivity, and because no one has asked it yet, I need to ask a question which won't stop shouting at me from within my head:
Whatever happened to the maxim "Women and children first"?
No disrespect intended.
posted by The Editor at
8:36 PM
7 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
I don't think the question is insensitive at all, I'm certain counsel assisting the coroner will be asking it. Having spent far more time than I should ferreting out the various news reports, I'm going to leave it to the coroner. I can tell you that none of the three surviving men behaved heroically as far as I can tell, and none of them suffered burns to their limbs; in fact, only one suffered any kind of burns at all (to his face).
I will note that from what has been reported so far the house was not fitted with a working smoke detector. A working smoke detector might very well have saved all 11 lives, although, obviously, not the house itself.
It will be up to the coroner to judge whether someone who could and should have fitted a smoke detector is likely to be found guilty of something.
I just had to ask the question because the reports seriously disturbed me. We should not speculate however. Yes, it's a question the coroner will have to deal with.
You were not the only person to think it, Gerry. If there's a conclusion, there's a regrettable human tendency to jump towards it.
Phil, yep, it's a great question to ask, but a dangerous one to try to answer. I'm glad it's up to the coroner and not me to find the answer.
We should be grateful for an operative rule of law.
They tell me I should be grateful to be alive too. I must be some sort of ingrate.
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