Bailey Pini was barely a teenager when his mother died of cancer in June 2020.
He died a year later after being placed into state care.
A coronial inquest in Bowen Magistrates Court on Wednesday heard a tragic series of events for the 13-year-old as he grappled with the loss of his mother while struggling to find someone to take him in.
Despite having no previous experience with the youth justice system, Bailey was placed in a state care facility in Sarina about May 13, several hours from his community in Bowen.
He died in a fiery crash about a month later after he and another youth in care stole the keys to an overnight officer's car and drove to his hometown.
Coroner Nerida Wilson is examining what went wrong, including the crash, how the teens managed to steal the keys, supervision at the house, and the events that led Bailey to ending up there in the first place.
'I don't want to die'
Crash witness Steve Wilson recounted to the inquest the the harrowing moments leading up to the incident.
Mr Wilson said he saw a silver sedan pass him at what he estimated was about 100kph in a 60kph zone.
It was moments later he realised it was the silver sedan, upside down, the bonnet crumpled.
Mr Wilson said he immediately called triple zero, but while on the phone he noticed fire starting to come out of the car.
"I went straight to the car, I tried to open all the doors," Mr Wilson said.
The only sound in the courtroom was Mr Wilson's ragged breathing as he paused, choking up as he tried to continue.
"I went around to all the doors, trying to open them, I couldn't get them open," Mr Wilson said when he regained his voice.
He said he managed to open one door.
"It's burning, it's starting to burn. Couldn't get them out, they weren't awake."
Mr Wilson said a second man approached with a small fire extinguisher trying to put some of the blaze out.
He described a third man "bigger than [him]" coming to the scene and helping to rescue Bailey's passenger.
The inquest heard Bailey's passenger started to "come to".
Mr Wilson said the teenager told him, "I'm hurting, I don't want to die".
"He kicked himself free somehow," he said.
"I pulled him out, and the big fella took him out of the way."
Mr Wilson said the heat of the fire was too strong to get close when he went back to the car to try again to rescue Bailey.
Senior Constable Jason Kreymborg arrived on scene about four minutes after receiving the triple zero call and tried with a small extinguisher to put out the fire.
"It was ineffective, I was surprised how ineffective it was," Constable Kreymborg said.
He said no-one was able to get close because of the heat of the flames.
Pictures of the fire were taken on Constable Kreymborg's phone.
Ms Wilson turned to Bailey's loved ones packed into the court's pews, warning them about the distressing nature of the images that would be displayed.
Bailey's loved ones shifted in their seats, clutching their hands tighter, but no one left.
The pictures depicted flames three metres tall devouring the sedan.
Through the busted windows, the opaque blaze covered anything or anyone inside.
Constable Kreymborg said firefighters arrived minutes after to quickly put the fire out.
Bailey died at the scene.
Pictures depicting the aftermath showed a black shell of the vehicle with only one tyre remaining.
Another home lost
Cheryl Williams, a former friend of Bailey's father, was the first witness to be called.
The inquest heard Bailey had been living in Proserpine with his father, a man he had only spent time with a handful of times, after his mother died.
Ms Williams met Bailey earlier in 2021.
She offered to take Bailey into her Bowen home for the Easter school holidays so he could spend time with his friends and visit his mother's grave.
She said at the end of his stay, Bailey's father kicked him out at the request of his housemate, so she decided to take him in.
Ms Williams said Bailey's father said "terrible things" about his son, but her experience was that Bailey was "well-behaved, helpful and polite".
Barrister Karen Carmody, representing the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs, asked Ms Williams if she had taken Bailey in out of the goodness of her heart, to which she replied she had.
But not long after Bailey moved in, Ms Williams' partner became sick, developing a tumour "the size of a golfball" inside his head.
Ms Williams said Bailey began to act up, running away in early May, an act she put down to the additional stress of watching someone close to him go through another sickness.
The inquest heard when police found him at a friend's house two days later, Ms Williams decided she couldn't look after both her partner and Bailey.
She said she intended on taking Bailey back after her partner had his surgery.
Bailey in state care
Detective Senior Constable Cindy Searle gave a report in which she analysed the nature of the care home Bailey had been placed into.
The inquest heard Senior Constable Searle reported "regular forced entry" into the office of the home, often "absconding properties, keys or cars of the carer" in the past five years.
The officer told the court she sourced the information from the Queensland Police Service database.
She said Sarina police would often be called to the address.
Barrister for the Sarina state care home, Anthony Collins, questioned Senior Constable Searle's report, asking her if she was aware of the protocols introduced in 2018 regarding police and state care interactions.
In particular, Mr Collins asked her if she was aware of the direction for police to only interfere in matters of "threats of life or criminal complaint".
Senior Constable Searle told the inquest she was aware but not familiar with the policy.
The inquest is expected call the remaining three witnesses when it resumes on Thursday.
