Man uses garden hose to fight North Geelong unit fire

A man could be seen using his garden hose to try to contain a fire that engulfed a North Geelong unit on Monday afternoon.

A MAN desperately used his garden hose to try to contain a fire that engulfed a North Geelong unit on Monday.

Firefighters were called to the Kildare Court unit blaze along Church Street around 2pm.

Witness Robert Robertson said he was in the shed of a nearby unit when he smelled smoke.

“About a minute or two later I came back out of the shed and the joint was full of smoke,” Mr Robertson said.

He said he started “panicking” and rushed upstairs to wake his partner Chloe who was sleeping.

“I woke her up and dragged her out of there,” he said.

“The unit just kept getting full of smoke and obviously we got the animals out.”

A unit was damaged in a fire on Church Street. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Firefighters at a blaze at a block of units in North Geelong get some help from a person with a garden hose. Picture: Laura Sexton

Mr Robertson was fearful the fire could spread to unit he shares with his partner so he rushed to rescue the couple’s birds and tried to search for their cat which had already escaped.

Firefighters managed to contain the blaze and the fire did not spread to Mr Robertson’s property.

Witnesses said another resident used his garden house to try and assist firefighters in extinguishing the blaze.

A Fire Rescue Victoria spokesman said three pumpers arrived on scene within six minutes to find the unit fully engulfed by fire.

“The incident was brought under control in 15 minutes,” he said.

“Thankfully there were no injuries.”

The unit is understood to have been extensively damaged.

Victoria Police are investigating the cause of the fire.

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Originally published as Man uses garden hose to fight North Geelong unit fire