THE Goodwins huddled barefoot on the side of the road watching an inferno engulf the top floor of their Wynnum home.
All they had were the clothes on their back and two pairs of shoes between the 11 of them.
No one was hurt “by the grace of God”, mother-of-nine Belinda Goodwin said.
Mrs Goodwin remembered it was 2.15pm on a quiet September afternoon on Brisbane’s bayside.
The family home overlooked the shore on picturesque Waterloo Esplanade.
It was having renovations done and was about two weeks away from completion.
Eight of nine Goodwin children and mum, Belinda, were at home enjoying a pupil free day.
Mrs Goodwin was asleep upstairs in her bedroom and the room next door had four children happily watching a movie.
Unknown to them, inside the wall dividing their two rooms was a fire.
It had been smouldering for two hours.
The children noticed “there was a bit of a glow in the toy box against the wall”, Mrs Goodwin said.
The children “moved the toy box and there was a fire coming out of the wall”.
They ran for mum, woke her up and she came around.
“I saw that the wall was blistering all over,” she said.
She grabbed the kids and raced downstairs screaming for the others.
One of the older boys had been in the basement praying the rosary when he had come up to use the bathroom and heard the commotion.
“I took the kids across the road and by the time I looked back, the whole upstairs was gone,” she said.
Within minutes, the fire had escaped the wall and the top floor was “a ball of flame”.
The eldest son as well as dad, David, were both at work.
Mr Goodwin was in the city at a meeting when he received a call on his mobile; it was his daughter – the house was on fire.
“Make sure the kids are out, count them again,” he said to her. He called her back a half dozen times and asked her to count them again.
He called up his son and told him to get home and count them.
Mr Goodwin parked two blocks away from his house and went on foot because of the congestion caused by the firetrucks and the traffic jam.
“You walk down the street and on one side is the house, the house is burning, and on the other side is your family,” he said.
“In a split second you see what’s really important.”
The family lost a lot in the fire – beloved family heirlooms, jewellery, clothes, books, hair brushes, school bags, uniforms, shoes, violins, electronics, phones, credit cards.
“It was an incredibly bad day when our house burnt down but I can’t honestly say we’ve had a bad day since,” Mr Goodwin said.
A groundswell of community support had overwhelmed the family.
Within hours, the people of Wynnum, the Catholic community and family had delivered a whole shopfront full of helpful goods to the Goodwins.
“The hardest thing after that was, how do you say thank you and how do you pay them back,” Mrs Goodwin said.
“I’m very mindful of when you have the opportunity to show a kindness, you need to show a kindness to people,” she said.
“This is the first time I’ve seen that really huge, overwhelming kindness… people who had a lot less than us giving us so much.”
When Mr Goodwin had a chance to see what remained after the fire, he saw the house had been gutted.
The downstairs living room and kitchen were caked in ash.
Anything untouched by fire was water-damaged by the firefighter’s hoses.
Upstairs was worse.
There was only about three-square metres of flooring on the top floor, the rest was just beams heaped with half a metre of charcoal.
Mr Goodwin set a ladder against one of the beams and climbed up to have a look at the top floor.
Right there in front of him was his wedding ring.
He said it gave him hope when he found that.
“The other two things we found were our christening cups,” he said.
“Out of the whole upstairs, that’s all that’s left, a wedding ring and two christening cups – I guess it’s pretty sacramental.”
Within three weeks, the family was able to find a rental fit for nine children.
The community helped them with couches, fridges, the local ballet school re-kitted all the ballet uniforms, the school took care of uniforms and lunchboxes, books and bags and the music teacher organised all the violins for the budding musicians.
Mrs Goodwin said the children had held up well since the fire.
“The little kids haven’t asked for anything at all,” she said.
“I think I’m probably the most upset.
“I get more emotional because I tend to think what if this had happened or what about that.
“Little things come back and you get upset.”
Mrs Goodwin said she noticed the fire had changed the way the children took their faith.
It was the extra hour of adoration or Mass, the extra time in prayer, she said.
“If it turns out that one of our kids is better off in life, keeping their faith as a consequence of this happening, then we’d do it all again tomorrow,” Mr Goodwin said.
The Goodwins have a Christmas tree and will be spending Christmas in Toowoomba with Mr Goodwin’s side of the family.
Mr Goodwin said it was important to remember during the nativity, “God didn’t come into a rich family, he came in a very poor one”.
“And the whole way through, Joseph and Mary were provided for; they had to constantly step out in faith and that’s what I think Catholics have to do,” he said.
“I think we have to lose a lot of our trappings and materialism.
“When you go through one of these (life events), it’s a really quick, fresh reminder of what really counts.
“And God does provide, He really does.”
