God’s guidance saves a family from a fiery disaster.
Country singer and Pastor Kerrigan LaBrooy and his family survive a fate that could have been disastrous.-BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE
God works in mysterious ways.
It’s not the most popular belief in today’s world, and challenged more today than ever before, but it could not have been more evident, underlined and endorsed than in the case of Kerrigan LaBrooy and his family in Berwick.
The popular Country singer and Pastor whose unshakable faith takes precedence over all else, found miraculous protection for him and his precious family when a fire broke out in the garage of their home.
Kerrigan LaBrooy has made an indelible mark in the music industry in Australia and overseas as a highly respected Country singer with a remarkable success rate in several genres including Gospel music.
The miracle factor in his scary experience was in the timing of what could have been, a horrendous incident which was averted with the loss of the garage and some personal memorabilia, but importantly no loss of life and the main dwelling.
A timely appointment with a tradesman who turned up months late, to the angst of Kerrigan, ultimately proved to be a blessing in disguise.
On arrival finally, after several rescheduling appointments and in the midst of discussing the task at hand, the startled tradesman pointed behind Kerrigan and to his horror he could see smoke bellowing from the roof of his garage.
Jolted into action, his reflex action kicked into gear as he rushed into the house and swiftly evacuated his family, then asked wife Michelle to dial 000 and grabbed the garden hose and valiantly attempted to contain the blaze until emergency services arrived.
It added another string to the bow of an already blessed man with his personal talents.
“It was a nervy feeling of rapid thought process, and thank God I did what was right to first, make my family safe, then try to minimise the damage to the property”, he said.
“Praise God we’re all alive to tell the tale of our fiery experience. If it was half an hour before or half an hour later, it would have been a totally different story”, he recalled.
“We would have either been asleep or away dropping my children off at school. All except my darling 16-year-old daughter Tempest who would have been home alone, fast asleep. What’s chilling about this is that her bedroom is right on top of the garage. My blood runs cold to even think of what might have been and I only do so as a testament to God’s Miraculous Protection”, he said.
Life’s trajectories are very much the unknown as is the example of this incredible story of escape from what could have been a tragedy if things were different.
“We had an appointment with this tradesman who was meant to come 3 months before but was delayed due to several repeated rescheduling, much to my growing frustration, but who can go against God’s perfect timing”?
“Because the tradesman was coming home at 7am, Michelle and I decided to do our usual charity run the night before so that we would both be home, otherwise it would have been only me organising our children for school etc, while working between my office and kitchen duties”.
“What’s significant about this tradesman arriving 3 months later was that it was him that noticed the fire! Had I not gone out to greet them, I would have been inside and not realized what was taking place outside until it was probably too late to save our home. It was him that pointed behind me and when I turned around, I saw plumes of black and brown smoke escaping between the roof and gutters of our garage. It must have happened that instant because when I walked through our front door to go to the side gate and greet him, there was no smoke for me to detect”.
“In my wife Michelle’s words: “According to eyewitnesses and the expert’s opinions, my darling hubby put his life on the line by fighting the fire with our garden hose until the fire fighters arrived in 4 trucks. His quick thinking prevented the fire from entering our home”, she said.
“While I’m honoured to hear that, I give all the Glory to God for it was Him that prompted me to do so. Was I scared? No, I don’t think I was as scared as much as I was wary. I don’t think I had time to be scared. All I could think of was making sure my family was safe and doing my utmost to protect our home. I kept counting and recounting my children while holding onto that hose”.
“No sooner I saw the smoke I shouted out to Michelle to ring the ‘000’ while I darted frantically to get all our 6 children out of the house quickly. At that stage, in my mind, I thought the house was going to collapse or the exit was going to be cut off. Two of our kiddos were still asleep. One of them (Tempest) later told me, “Dadda, I know you’ve always warned us about these possibilities, but I never thought it would really happen. For a moment I thought you were kidding but something in your voice made me believe you and I rushed out of bed.”
“Together we’ll rebuild what’s been destroyed to ashes, with the undeniable realisation that we’ve saved much more. What’s unrecoverable is the memorabilia which includes family photo albums, the children’s school projects, my world tour video footage, other live performance, song lyrics and scripted stories from the 70’s and 80’s, press and magazine articles etc”.
An emotional Kerrigan recounted, “Whenever I think of this and it breaks my heart, immediately I think of my wife and children being alive and safe and I become positive again. One thing I did grab before we evacuated our home was the hard drive of our children’s baby photographs and videos. Again, the Lord was guiding me”.
In times of crisis and test of survival, Kerrigan’s response saved what could have been a disaster similar to a recent event a few days later where a toddler could not be saved in a similar incident in Melbourne.
But response to personal setbacks doesn’t always come with all good he reveals.The aftermath delivered the good, the bad and the ugly of human behaviours he said.
Support groups sprung into action to support the family needing accommodation while the logistics kicked in to establish structural safety until they can return home.
Being concerned about the neighbours welfare however met with mixed reaction as some were supportive others no so and hostile, about their cramped style of personal events and entertainment.
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