Asquith: Postman Richard Pumpa responds to house fire
A Sydney postman who was the first to respond to a house fire says he almost failed to notice the blaze spreading through the property.
Hornsby
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A brave postman still on probation thanks a book parcel for leading him to help save the lives of four pets trapped inside a burning house on Sydney’s upper north shore.
Richard Pumpa, who started working as a postman two months ago, also had a tearful reunion with the house owners today while returning to his regular duties.
Mr Pumpa was doing his round on Lodge St, Asquith, on Tuesday about 11.30am, when he walked to the door and noticed condensation on very dark windows.
“I had a book that needed a signature, that’s why I went to the door,’’ the 46-year-old said.
“If it was just a letter I wouldn’t have noticed it. I went to knock on the door and noticed condensation and thought it was hot in there … and felt the heat and stepped back and noticed the smoke coming out of the roof.
“It was a mild but noticeable heat radiating from the windows to the front door.”
He called Triple-0 and tried unsuccessfully to gain entry inside the house so he grabbed a garden hose trying to douse fire on the roof tiles while he waited for firefighters to arrive.
Fire and Rescue NSW Hornsby station officer Paul Baker saw Mr Pumpa trying to contain the blaze before he eventually returned to delivering duties.
Mr Baker praised the Central Coast father-of-two who started his job based from the Hornsby depot two months ago after being a stay-at-home dad to his children Gabriella, 12, and Ridley, 8.
“The fact he recognised something was not right and acted on it saved the house and the animals, and that’s by no means an exaggeration,’’ Mr Baker said.
“If the fire had been left for another 5-10 minutes longer, the house would have been lost.’’
Two cats and two dogs were trapped inside.
Mr Baker said emergency crews had to break a window to get inside the house before quickly extinguishing the fire with minimal use of water.
It was then that they noticed one dog in need of oxygen therapy for smoke inhalation, before the other three pets were found in another room.
“That dog was in quite a bad way appearing lethargic, vomiting and not breathing very well,” Mr Baker said.
The animals were all taken to Asquith Veterinary Hospital and are in a stable condition.
Mr Baker said the house was up a battleaxe driveway and there would have been no way people would have seen it from the street.
“We believe the fire was accidental due to the rangehood filter,” he said.
Firefighters remind people to keep the kitchen area, such as the rangehood, clean from grease build-up, regularly service appliances and make sure smoke alarms are always working.