Adelaide house fire: Monica Fry dies in Angle Park fire while sister recovers in hospital

The heartbroken sister of a teenage girl who died in a house fire fought desperately to save her and suffered severe burns when she heard her sister’s blood-curdling screams.

Sisters Monica, 18, and Drewicilla Fry, 19, were at their home in Angle Park, northwest Adelaide, at about 2:30pm Friday when a fire broke out in Monica’s bedroom.

Their grandmother Jennifer Hannam has revealed that Drewicilla was in the kitchen at the back of the house when it started to fill with smoke and ran to her sister’s room, but the door was closed.

Neighbors managed to save Drewicilla from the blaze before emergency services arrived.

They splashed water in their faces as the distraught woman cried and cried desperately for her sister who was still trapped inside.

By the time she had come to the front room to try and get Monica out of the room, it was too late,’ Mrs. Hannam said The advertiser.

She said she could hear poor Monica screaming, but she just couldn’t get her out of the room.

“She burned her face and hands trying to get her out of the room.”

The grieving grandmother laid flowers at the Murray Street home on Saturday in memory of Monica as Drewicilla recovers from burns in hospital.

Mrs. Hannam tries not to “fall apart” as she remembered Monica as a young girl with a bubbly personality.

“(Monica) is a very bubbly type of kid, she’s always been a little outgoing and loving,” she said.

“But she was also relatively quiet.”

Before the tragedy, the sisters had gotten their lives back on track after years in foster care.

The couple lived in separate foster homes until Drewicilla was old enough to leave the foster system and move into the home, with Monica joining soon after.

Monica (pictured) tragically died after becoming trapped in the house

The girls’ grandmother, Jennifer Hannam (pictured), described her as having a bubbly personality and said her sister did everything she could to get her out of the burning room

She added that the girls’ mother and older sister are at the Royal Adelaide Hospital with Drewicilla who is ‘very distraught’.

Startled neighbors said Drewicilla came out of the house calling desperately for her sister and crying hysterically as the fire took hold.

“I was sitting at my computer and heard screaming and yelling,” one resident said Nine News.

“Then smoke came into the house and I thought ‘what the hell is going on?’.”

Neighbor Stasie Leonard ran outside after she smelled smoke and heard a “huge bang.”

“I saw smoke and heard another bang,” she said. “Flames shot out the window.”

“Someone went, ‘there’s someone else in there,'” she said. “It’s just been chaos, it’s been awful,” he said

Peter Seery fought every instinct he had to break down the door and help Monica.

The former CFS volunteer tried desperately to fight the flames with a garden hose until firefighters arrived.

Sisters Monica, 18, and Drewicilla Fry, 19, were at their home in Angle Park, north-west Adelaide, when it caught fire (pictured, firefighters on scene)

It took 14 Metropolitan Fire Service firefighters with three vehicles and a command vehicle 40 minutes to put out the blaze.

The Metropolitan Fire Service believes the fire started in the front room of the Murray Street home, which was completely destroyed with only the structure and frame of the window remaining.

The police prepare a report for the coroner, but Monica’s death is not considered suspicious.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.