Aldinga Beach house destroyed in Valentine’s Day inferno

Everything was destroyed in a Valentine’s Day inferno that ripped through a family home at Aldinga Beach – except for one treasure miraculously saved from the rubble.

A southern suburbs family who lost everything in a ferocious house fire that started in a bedroom had a slight glimmer of hope in what they found among the rubble of their home.

In an astonishing twist, The Advertiser understand the 18-year-old resident bride-to-be’s wedding dress was saved from the destruction when almost everything else was destroyed.

A portable evaporative air cooler is believed to have sparked the devastating blaze about 3am at the Stirling Cres home in Aldinga Beach.

It took hold of the property within minutes, the smell of smoke inside an 18-year-old woman’s bedroom waking her and her fiance.

They were among the six occupants inside – including a two and five-year-old child and adults aged 57 and 33 – who all escaped without injury but their home and all its contents are now rubble.

David Hamlyn, who lives in a caravan at the front of the property, said he heard yelling and screaming.

He raced to the house and made sure everybody was outside before going into action trying to save neighbouring properties.

A fire believed to have been started in a bedroom, has completely engulfed a single story home at Stirling Crescent in Aldinga Beach. Photo: Facebook

Mr Hamlyn said he raced to the house and made sure everybody was outside.

“We’re all right, that’s the main thing,” Mr Hamlyn said.

“A water (air) cooler in one of the bedrooms went up.

“I was helping get everyone out but by that stage (the fire) had caught up and there was no stopping it.

“It just went up.”

The family of six escaped the fire but have lost all their belongings. Picture: Supplied

Five CFS crews with about 25 firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze. Photo: Facebook

Crediting the emergency response as “11 out of 10”, Mr Hamlyn said he did not believe anything was salvageable inside the shell of the home.

“It’s absolutely gutted; the whole roof caved in.

“It started in the second room from the front.

“It just came licking out of that room and once it got into the roof, it was all over.”

Mr Hamlyn said the goods inside were replaceable.

“You can replace houses, but you can’t replace kids.”

The family has owned the home for more than 20 years.

They spent the morning sifting through what remained of the insured property, removing what items they could.

It is understood they are staying with family.

The damage bill is estimated to be $500,000. Picture: Tara Miko

MFS fire investigator Andrew French said the damage bill would exceed $500,000.

“The significant fire started in one of the bedrooms and then spread up into the ceiling space and once it got into the ceiling space, it spread through the house quite quickly and destroyed the whole house,” he said.

“We have determined the fire started in one of the main bedrooms due to a fault in the motor of a portable evaporative airconditioning system.

“We believe the system was quite old, it was originally purchased second hand so as you can understand it is quite old when the occupants got it.

“These things reach their end of life at some stage, we never know when.

“But considering the age of the unit it was probably just a matter of time before significant fault or defect occurred in that machine.”

It is believed the fire started in a bedroom. Picture: Tara Miko

Mr French said the fire spread so quickly the fitted smoke alarms did not sound, and urged residents to check which detectors were inside their homes.

“They are extremely lucky,” he said.

“There was a smoke detector in the home but it didn’t alert the occupants to the fire.

“What alerted the occupants to the fire was the people inside the room waking up, seeing flames in the bedroom, then they got the rest of the occupants out of the home.

“If the people in that room weren’t alerted to the fire in that room, we could have possibly have seen a number of serious injuries or fatalities occur.

“The detector in this case was an ionisation smoke detector and the MFS recommends either photoelectric or a combination of photoelectric and ionisation.”

Five CFS crews with about 25 firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze.

The family’s two cats remain missing having escaped the fire, while the family’s two dogs were safely rescued.