Emergency services swarm complex after Westcourt unit fire, quick-thinking neighbours help fight fire

A quick-thinking Westcourt resident leapt into action with a fire extinguisher while his daughter dialled Triple-0 after their neighbours’ unit caught fire on Saturday afternoon.

UPDATE, 3.30PM: A quick-thinking Westcourt resident leapt into action with a fire extinguisher while his daughter dialled Triple-0 after their neighbours’ unit caught fire on Saturday afternoon.

Robert Hogan, 53, was sitting at home in his chair at roughly 1pm when he heard a loud bang, and looked around to see a mattress and the front screen door of the adjacent unit on fire.

“I flew straight into me kitchen and grabbed me fire extinguisher and I was out here like a flash to put it out,” Mr Hogan said.

“(An occupant) pulled the mattress downstairs, I put it out, and a few fires under the stairs I put out. I couldn’t get into the house.”

Meanwhile, Mr Hogan’s daughter Jainy-Lee Sivyer-Hogan dialled Triple-0.

“I called the triple-0. And I told them everything that’s going on. And when I was on the phone, (the woman) asked me to pretty much yell at everyone to get away from the smoke,” Ms Sivyer-Hogan said.

“So I yelled at everyone and said get away from the smoke – and everyone did. But there was still people coming out of the house when I was yelling it out.”

Ms Sivyer-Hogan said the smoke coming from the building was “really bad from upstairs”.

Police this afternoon confirmed they were treating the fire as suspicious and had declared a crime scene at 2.15pm

Investigations are continuing.

EARLIER: Detectives have arrived on scene to investigate the cause of a fire at a set of units in Westcourt on Saturday afternoon.

Scores of paramedics, police and firefighters arrived at the unit fire at approximately 1pm on Saturday, where a blaze at a residence on the corner of Brophy and Tills Streets was quickly brought under control.

Witnesses reported seeing flames, and thick black smoke pouring out of the building.

QFES Station Officer James Woodcraft said four firefighting units were on scene within minutes of the Triple-0 call.

“On arrival we found a lot of smoke issuing from the building and we’ve gone into action to conduct a primary search and firefight this incident today, to bring it under control,” he said.

Officer Woodcraft said it was not immediately clear whether the fire started in the upstairs or downstairs of the two-storey unit.

“Firefighters got in there very quickly, within minutes of being on scene. As we came out of the station we could see the smoke.”

He said that when firefighters arrived, everyone had exited the building.

Officer Woodcraft encouraged families to make sure they had an evacuation plan for their home, and to check their smoke detectors were installed and functioning.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said four patients – two males and two females – were treated for minor smoke inhalation.

Originally published as Emergency services swarm complex after Westcourt unit fire, quick-thinking neighbours help fight fire