Man pulls mum from Koongal, Rockhampton, house fire

Two beloved pet cats may have perished in a raging fire that engulfed a Central Queensland property, as one of the first on scene speaks out.

A house was destroyed in a fire about 7am on April 13, 2025, at Kirby Street, Koongal, in Rockhampton.

A former firefighter shared how she tried to stop a Rockhampton resident from re-entering a burning home after the woman tried to save her cats from the fire.

The woman, from Emerald who wanted to remain anonymous, was among the first on scene, raising alarms about a fully engulfed property in Kirby St, Koongal, just after 7am Sunday.

“I heard yelling and I looked down the road and seen smoke,” the woman, who had previously been an auxiliary firefighter for six and a half years, said.

“I yelled to call the fire brigade and just ran down there to see if the family was safe.”

She told this publication when she arrived a man was already on scene trying to put out the fire with a hose.

The woman said all that went through her mind as she raced to the fire was to try and ensure the safety of others, and once she got to the scene she was told no one was in the house barring two cats.

A man who lived at the home had pulled his mother from the fiery property after she smashed a glass window.

She later tried to re-enter the property for her cats.

“She went in and I yelled at her to get out,” the Emerald woman said.

A house was destroyed in a fire about 7am on April 13, 2025, at 310 Kirby Street, Koongal, in Rockhampton.

“I tried to prevent her but she did go back into the house, I told her to come back out … she did come back out.“

The Emerald woman said she tried to save one of the cats she had spotted near a high window but a melting curtain scared the animal back into the house.

“I’m no hero I wanted to make sure that they (the residents) were safe but I wasn’t going to put myself in danger either,” the Emerald woman said.

“I didn’t have any protection like a breathing apparatus so going into the house to save a cat wasn’t an option unfortunately.”

Though she was unable to help the cat she was able to help the male resident move one of the cars on the property away from the burning house.

She stayed until emergency services arrived and then left.

“I don’t know what started it (the fire), where it started and how it started … it (the fire) was so fast” she said.

A house was destroyed in a fire about 7am on April 13, 2025, at 310 Kirby Street, Koongal, in Rockhampton.

A Queensland Fire Department spokeswoman said four crews attended the scene at 7.15am after being called at 7.08am, and found the single-storey house fire “well involved”.

She said everyone was out of the house and QFD crews had the fire under control by 7.50am and completely extinguished by 8am.

Kirby Street residents spoke with The Morning Bulletin on Sunday, praising the quick actions of the firefighters.

One woman said she had been outside about the time the fire started and noticed what she thought was morning mist about 7am.

She said she went inside momentarily, and when she came back out, she saw another resident run across four or five houses towards the end of the street and saw the mist was actually smoke.

The woman said the man who lived in the house, who is in his 20s, pulled his mother out after she smashed a window to escape.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said neither of the two occupants of the house were assessed nor transported by QAS.

The front yard and driveway were strewn with car parts including batteries, tyres, and a chemical drum visible from the road.

“It was really toxic smoke,” the woman said.

She and others told The Morning Bulletin they could smell petrol burning and other toxic smells.

They also said bangs were coming from the fire.

The residents said they closed all their windows and doors to avoid breathing in the bad fumes.

A second woman, praising the efforts of the firefighters, said they got the fire out in about 10 mins.

“They did a hell of a job,” she said.

She also said they were the best-looking firefighters she’d ever seen, and so were the Queensland Police Service officers who attended.

A QPS spokesman said investigators were attempting to determine the cause of the fire.