Gympie family loses everything in catastrophic house fire
Fire crews battled a house fire at a property near Gympie earlier this morning.
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EMERGENCY services rushed to a house fire near Gympie earlier this morning.
The high-set Queenslander timber house at Traveston was reportedly "well alight" at 1.30am this morning with six fire crews from Gympie, Pomona and Cooran in attendance.
"We did have reports that the occupants might be in the house but on arrival, we found all persons out of the house," a fire fighter at the scene told 7News Sunshine Coast.
"Unfortunately in these rural type environments, it is very difficult to put a house out," he said.
"There is a fair amount of time before we get to these locations. We are protecting all the other buildings around it, but the house is lost. There was an 11,000 volt powerlines running close to the building and again being a rural property, there was a limited water supply.
"The rural fire brigade came to support us with supplying water and then we were able to tap into the rain water tanks onsite."
The property owners were quite distressed at the loss of their beloved house.
"The occupants were out of the house and they were very distressed. They believe the fire may have started in the living room but we have investigators who will determine what happened," he said.
"There was horses on the property but they were nowhere near the house. There was no animals injured or hurt in this fire."
The QFES spokesman said there was nothing that could be done to save the property.
"This is an old timber house with a tinned roof. It was very difficult, we weren't able to send crews inside the house as it was high-set and there was a fair bit of damage due to the heat," he said.
"We will be investigating this fire but there is potential it did happen in the living room and there was a fire in the fire place burning during the night. We would like to remind people who do have fire places, to ensure their fire flues are checked before they operate them."
QFES crews are investigating.
Originally published as Gympie family loses everything in catastrophic house fire
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