Neighbour’s desperate bid to rescue man in deadly Kingsford blaze

Social workers attempted to convince a 92-year-old man to clear his cluttered Kingsford home before he tragically died when the building was destroyed by fire overnight.

AN elderly hoarder who died in a Sydney house fire had defied calls from social workers to clear his dangerously cluttered home.

Keith Willcox’s body was found 12 hours after flames destroyed his home on Leonard Ave in Kingsford about 2am on Saturday.

The 92-year-old former architect had lived in the home for decades after returning from a stint in Europe to care for his elderly mother.

He formed close relationships with his neighbours, who stood in the street on Saturday watching fire fighters search for Mr Willcox in what remained of his smouldering home.

Fire investigators at the scene early today. Picture: Tim Pascoe

Police and fire investigators discovered Mr Willcox’s body this afternoon. Picture: Gordon McComiskie

“We don’t want him to be alone when they find him,” Josephine Rosa, who knew Mr Willcox for 27 years, said.

Neighbours were aware of Mr Willcox’s penchant for hoarding and had tried to get him to clean up his home.

Ms Rosa said Mr Willcox fell through the floor of his home several years ago.

Emergency services struggled to reach him because of the property piled up throughout his house.

“It took two ambulance teams to get him out,” she said.

“(Another neighbour) went up to the hospital and spoke to a social worker and said he can’t come home to this, this is going to happen again.

“The hospital involved social workers. But when he got home, he just refused and said I am doing it, then they just dropped off.

“I think he just put it in the too hard basket.”

At the age of 92, Mr Willcox still had his faculties and occasionally spoke of his earlier life travelling Europe, living on a Kibbutz and in communes.

Firefighters put out the blaze on Leonard Ave, Kingsford. Picture: Gordon McComiskie

“He was very eclectic but very intelligent and socially minded,” Ms Rosa said.

One neighbour said Mr Willcox kept a small gas heater in his home however fire investigators were still trying to figure out on Saturday how the blaze started.

Neighbours didn’t believe Mr Willcox had any immediate family in Sydney or children.

He rarely had visitors either.

Years ago Australian cricketer Harold Larwood lived next door and Larwood’s daughter would occasionally visit Mr Willcox for lunch, Ms Rosa said.

Most recently it was only neighbours, like Peter Schick, who dropped by to drop off his groceries or simply say hello.

“When he got up in the morning he used to open the shutters so we knew he was okay and at nights he would dim the shutters to say he was going to bed or whatever,” Mr Schick said.

“It was a system for many years, it worked quite well.”

The house on Leonard Ave, Kingsford hours after the blaze. Picture: Tim Pascoe

Fire Brigades officers fight the blaze early today. Picture: Gordon McComiskie

Mr Schick tried to get into Mr Willcox’s burning home on Saturday after jumping out of bed when he heard someone yelling “fire”.

“I couldn’t force the door open because it was a screen door so I went to the window and smashed the window, which is his front bedroom,” he recalled.

“He wasn’t in the bedroom and I realised he must have been at the back of the house.

“But it was too late, I couldn’t go any further.”

He was nursing a cut to his hand on Saturday as he watched police and fire fighters search through the debris.

NSW Fire and Rescue Inspector Duncan White said the roof had caved in and the hoarding had made the scene difficult to search.