Neighbour Jacob Ballantine recounts Albert Street house fire in Rockhampton
“It’s amazing how close the fire got and we haven’t lost anything when the other two houses are just gone.”
Rockhampton
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rockhampton. Followed categories will be added to My News.
By Monday’s early light, Jacob Ballantine could appreciate just how close he had come to catastrophe.
The young carpenter said he woke early Monday to a noise he could only describe as a “massive thunderstorm”.
It was the first Albert Street house on fire, two doors down from the rental home he shares with a mate.
“I heard the noise then I saw the light and the rest is history,” he said.
Police ordered Jacob and other nearby residents to keep well back from the fire, in fear a gas leak might spark further damage.
He tried to catch some sleep parked in his car about 100 metres away from the scene.
“I thought our house was gone at one point,” he said.
“It’s amazing how close the fire got and we haven’t lost anything when the other two houses are just gone.”
Mr Ballantine is taking a day off work to move his possessions out of the house which reeks of smoke.
Police continue to investigate the cause of the blaze.
Join the conversation
Watch: ‘I had a stroke in regional Qld – this new tech saved my life’
A Qld woman says she is alive because a new system, where strokes are diagnosed and “clot-busting” drugs given within minutes, is being piloted at her regional hospital. It comes ahead of a statewide rollout.
Read more
Meth, marijuana and booze: nine motorists shamed in court
Drunk drivers who crashed into railway crossings and parked cars were just some of the motorists disqualified and fined in Rockhampton Magistrates Court in January 2025.
Read more