Hororata teen's lucky escape

LUCKY: Xavier Trousselot-Rhodes in front the Hororate house he escaped death during Canterbury's September 2010 earthquake.

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"I was very scared, indescribably scared," says 16-year-old Xavier Trousselot-Rhodes after being tipped out of his first floor bedroom and on to the ground outside, when this morning's earthquake struck.

"The roof started to shake and make strange noises as an old house does and the all of a sudden I decided I'd be safer if I rolled off the bed in case the roof collapsed," Xavier said this morning, after being released from hospital.

"But then the wall fell out of the house so I ended up rolling out with the wall about three or so metres and I'm still alive."

The teenager miraculously suffered only  minor cuts and bruises despite tumbling in a heap with bricks and other debris from the historic Hororata Homestead, just outside Hororata.

His father Allan Rhodes was asleep in the next room when the shaking started.

"I screamed out to Xavier to get out of the house, next thing the walls started falling out," Rhodes said. "I was running to where his room was or what was left of it and  he wasn't there, he was screaming he'd fallen down onto the ground."

Rhodes went out into the darkness, expecting the worst.  "He was covered in bricks  and he looked in a bad way.  He kept saying he thought his back was broken."

Neighbours brought blankets to keep Xavier warm and an ambulance soon arrived to take him to Christchurch Hospital, from which he was sent home a few hours later.

"It was terrifying to see your 16 year old son with bricks on him," said Rhodes. "And when you look at the roof and what's happened there, we're extremely lucky the roof didn't come down on top of him."

- © Fairfax NZ News