Georges Hall: Car ploughs into house, sparking house fire

When a 20-year-old man lost control of his car and smashed into a Sydney home while a family were inside, it was a matter of life and death after everything around the accident exploded into flames. Here is how the dramatic incident unfolded.

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Fire and Rescue NSW duty commander Inspector Kernin Lambert has been to his fair share of unusual incidents. Situations that change rapidly, requiring quick thinking and equally fast responses.

So on the evening of June 11, 2018, when what appeared to be a rescue operation turned into a fire and potential structural collapse, he was prepared to make the calls that would help save lives.

That night, a family got the shock of their lives when a car ploughed into the structure beneath their house in an incident Insp Lambert described as “highly unprecedented”.

Firefighters at the scene of a fire in Georges Hall, which was sparked by a stolen car that crashed into a home where two people were sleeping upstairs. Pictures: Kernin Lambert

Fire and Rescue NSW duty commander Inspector Kernin Lambert has been to a number of unusual incidents.

A couple and their son were asleep in their Georges Hall home when the car, driven by a 20-year-old man, lost control and flew into the front of the house, coming to a stop beneath the master bedroom.

Neighbours were woken up by an enormous bang and then smoke. Within seconds the car was on fire, hot fuel having sprayed onto the exhaust.

The situation evolved rapidly, with the car on fire and the house also alight. Pictures: Kernin Lambert

The blaze took five hours to extinguish. Picture: Kernin Lambert

Firefighters racing to the scene were in their rescue gear, working on reports a person was trapped in their car.

But as the situation quickly escalated firefighters rushed to switch into their firefighting uniforms and breathing apparatus as they drove..

Then, the house caught alight.

“It’s very, very rare to have a car go underneath a structure,” Insp Lambert said.

“So that car is fully involved in fire, the house is on fire, smoke is billowing from the house and the fire was intensified because the fuel tank was alight.”

Firefighters were confronted by a complex situation with teams breaking up to perform a search and rescue operation and another working to contain the fire.

The fire caused a significant amount of damage. Picture: Kernin Lambert

Thankfully, the residents of the house had escaped and so, too, had the driver.

Now, facing 900-degree heat and the risk of the house collapsing due to the damage it had sustained, firefighters turned their attention to the fire, which had spread to the garage where high-performance car tyres and flammable materials continued to fuel the blaze.

Five hours later, firefighters were able to extinguish it.

“It was a very unusual incident. We train people to be prepared for unexpected incidents and there (are) some types of incidents where you cannot prepare people in advance for that particular type of scenario because it’s so unusual,” Insp Lambert said.

“With this one, when the firefighters arrived on scene the reality was there were no lives in danger, but we didn’t know that and we’ve always got to assume the worst and work backwards from that.

“At night time you’re always thinking the worst because that’s when people are home, number one, and that’s when people are asleep.”