Wollert house fire: man falls asleep while cooking lucky to be alive

A MAN is lucky to be alive after his stove caught fire when he fell asleep while cooking on Saturday.

A MAN is lucky to be alive after his stove caught fire when he fell asleep while cooking on Saturday.

Wollert CFA were called to the incident at Paramount Rise, Wollert at 4.23pm on Saturday.

Incident controller Aaron O’Reilly said the call came from a neighbour across the road who saw smoke billowing out of the garage and roof.

“The smoke alarm was audible and they were unsure if anyone was home,” Mr O’Reilly said.

“We went straight in and found a male asleep on the couch about five metres away from the stove.

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The 49-year-old man was treated for minor smoke inhalation.

“A couple more minutes and he would have been dead,” Mr O’Reilly said.

“He was very thankful. He actually woke up and realised what had happened.”

Mr Reilly said it took firefighters several minutes to find the cause of the fire because the smoke was so thick and the house was locked up.

“There were no flames when we got there it was just very smoky,” he said.

“Police won’t investigate that one because the cause of the fire was known so there is no investigation needed.”

Wollert CFA attended the job backed up by Craigieburn and Epping brigades.

“The volunteer and career staff worked together it was a joint effort from both,” Mr O’Reilly said.

Mr O’Reilly said it was a timely message coming into the festive season to not leave cooking unattended at anytime.

Find tips for fire preparation at cfa.vic.gov.au