Woman dead after Melbourne house fire

NEIGHBOURS have described waking up to screams as a fatal blaze ripped through a house in Melbourne’s west overnight.

Women has died in a house fire in Clive Street, West Footscray. Picture: Sarah Matray

NEIGHBOURS have described waking up to screams as a fatal fire ripped through a house in West Footscray, in Melbourne’s west. overnight.

Emergency services were called to the blaze at the two-storey house on Clive St just before 12.30am, but a 62-year-old woman died at the scene.

It took 40 fire fighters almost 40 minutes to bring the fatal fire under control.

Another woman, 68, was taken to hospital was minor injuries.

The exact cause of the fire is not yet known. Fire investigators are at the scene and the investigation is ongoing.

The second resident was comforted by police before being taken to hospital. Picture: Patrick Herve

A firefighter makes his way through the front entrance. Picture: Patrick Herve

Maria, who declined to give her last name, said by the time she woke the fire was ripping through the home across the street from her own.

“I could hear a lady screaming,” she told the Herald Sun.

“I can’t believe how fast the fire spread though the whole house.”

She praised the efforts of emergency services.

“The police did everything they could,” Maria added. “They just threw themselves in there.”

Paramedics at the scene of the fire. Picture: Patrick Herve

Felipe Ubilla’s house backs onto the gutted property.

He was woken to “pops and bangs”, which he initially dismissed as fireworks.

“But then I stuck my head out and I saw the glow of the fire,” he said.

“The guy that lives next door was trying to put the fire out with a hose.”

He said the close-knit street would be shaken by the incident.

“Everyone knows each other quite well.”

Clive St resident Peter Renwick, 52, believed the two women were active in the church community but said they mostly kept to themselves.

“They were not all that able, they had disabilities,” he said.

“I didn’t know them well, just coming and going around the community, but they seemed to have people from the church come around.”

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