FRANKIE DeGROOT | News | CONTACT

A Western Sydney family has lost their home and everything they own after a horrific accident on Tuesday afternoon which destroyed their modest Campbelltown house and everything inside it.

Mother of 3 Heather Buckley said she first sensed something was wrong when she heard her daughter screaming in her bedroom.

“She had to make some sort of poster for school, about the pyramids or something. So I went to Spotlight and got a big bag of gold glitter to spruce it up a bit. I’m making the spaghetti and next thing I know she’s running into the kitchen screaming, covered in glitter. She said she tried to open it by pulling both sides of the bag and it’s just exploded in her face and covered the entire house. I just grabbed her and her brothers and we got out just in time”.



SES responder Geoff Snark said the family were lucky to escape.

“In cases like this there are often multiple persons involved, so it is lucky that there were only 4 individuals in the residence at the time. We got the call at 16:35 and had a decontamination unit and 300m exclusion zone were set up by 16:50. The ‘hot zone’ is contained to a single property with a 3 bedroom dwelling, so we expect we can have the entire site cleared and remediated within a week. This is the worst case of glitter contamination I have seen in my 17 years with the SES, so we are very fortunate to have such a positive outcome.”



Mrs Buckley, who was visibly distressed as she watched hazmat crews dismantle her family home and seal everything up for incineration at a toxic waste facility said the family have been left with nothing.

“We weren’t even allowed to bring photo albums; the risk of contamination was too high,” she cried.

“But at least everyone is safe, that’s the important thing”.