Harold is an off-duty firefighter who is going home after finishing his shift on a Friday night when there is a gas explosion in a house that he is driving past. Harold immediately stops and, together with Mary, a passing pedestrian, they go to see if they can help anyone. They can hear a woman shouting in panic from a downstairs room at the front of the house that is on fire. Fire is starting to spread from the downstairs explosion throughout the upper floors of the house and this is causing these to collapse into ground floor rooms. Despite this Harold runs into the house to try and rescue the woman. He successfully helps her to escape but as he is trying to leave the building a large burning beam obstructs his way out. Fortunately, Harold finds a way to escape but, in the process, suffers severe burns and is now also suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Mary runs around to the bedrooms on the ground floor at the back of the property to help the children escape. Mary has to break a window in order to provide the children with an escape route. As she helps the children climb out of the window a large section of wall and roof collapse into the room in which they had been trapped. Mary doesn't think of the potential physical risk she and the children are in because she has suddenly realised that the house was her home for the first 8 years of her life. In fact, it is an architecturally significant building as it was the only domestic home designed and built by her father who was an internationally recognised architect. After helping the children escape she collapses to the ground and is now suffering severe depression caused by the destruction of her former home.

The children who escaped from the burning house had been on a video call on their mobile phone to their parents, Jack and Susan, who had been out having dinner. Jack and Susan saw the wall and ceiling collapse but did not know that their children escaped. Unfortunately, as they were about to climb out the window the phone was dropped and got broken so that the last thing the parents saw was the room being engulfed by flames. They immediately left the restaurant to get their car. On the way they saw a television broadcast of the burning house and a reporter stating incorrectly that all the occupants of the house had died trying to escape. Jack immediately collapsed in shock. Sue is suffering from persistent nightmares and is unable to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time.

The evidence shows that the gas explosion and subsequent fire was caused by a stove that had been negligently installed by Ovens R Us Limited.

Advise Ovens R US Limited in relation to the potential claims from Harold, Mary, as well as Jack and Susan.