Huge blaze tears through Unanderra home
Firefighters have contained a huge blaze that broke out at an Illawarra home on Monday morning.
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A Unanderra home has been destroyed after a fire ripped through the two-storey property.
Emergency Services were called to the Beatus Street home just after 10am today after reports of a house fire.
When firefighters arrived, they found the house well alight, with flames “bursting” from both the bottom level garage and second storey bedrooms.
Fire and Rescue NSW Illawarra Duty Commander Inspector Chad Wallace said the resident of the home was uninjured and able to assist firefighters in locating any potential hazards.
“He was able to provide some critical information about hazards in the building, including electricity and gas cylinders,” he said.
“He was also able to confirm there were no other persons in the house which let us then concentrate our efforts on putting the fire out.”
Residents neighbouring the home said the owner was a hoarder, which made fighting the fire an even more difficult task.
“It seems the homeowner has been collecting a general household items over a significant period of time and that obviously hampered the firefighter efforts,” Inspector Wallace said.
More than 10 crews worked for over an hour to contain the blaze, which did not spread to neighbouring homes despite strong winds.
“Due to the location of the fire and the rapid response of Fire and Rescue NSW, we had a few fire trucks here in only a few minutes,” Inspector Wallace said.
“That enabled the fire to be isolated to the original house.”
Inspector Wallace said it was not yet clear where or how the fire started, but investigations into the cause would soon commence.
Inspector Wallace said the fire was a timely reminder for people to review their fire safety plans.
“Coming out of winter, we need to have our home fire safety plans n check and make sure we have a working smoke alarm on every floor,” he said.
A spokeswoman from NSW Police confirmed detectives were investigating the circumstances surrounding the fire.
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