Cockatoo Valley family return to find home incinerated after freak electrical fire
A young Barossa family is starting from scratch after a freak electrical fire tore through their home, sparking above their daughter’s bed not long after she was sound asleep.
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A young Barossa family is starting from scratch after a freak electrical fire tore through their home, sparking above their 10-year-old daughter’s bed, not long after she’d been sound asleep inside.
Jade Philp had taken her kids, Aubrey, 10, William, 8, and Clara, 2, out for the morning school run and a Woolies pick-up on Monday when she returned to find smoke pouring from the roof of their old brick home on Williamstown Rd in Cockatoo Valley.
“At first I thought it was dust from the driveway,” Jade said.
“But then I heard the fire alarms and we realised the house was on fire.”
The blaze had started in the ceiling directly above the children’s bedroom.
“We’re just so grateful it didn’t happen an hour earlier,” she said.
“Everyone was still asleep. If it had started then, we might not have made it out.”
“It was probably some old, dodgy wiring in the roof, and where it started was right above the kids’ bedroom. Their whole room was just incinerated.”
The moment she saw smoke rising from the roof, Jade sprinted inside to save the family’s beloved pet budgie.
“You couldn’t see a metre in front of you. I just grabbed the cage and ran,” she said.
“The cage is bigger than me but I just picked it up with some kind of super strength and got him out. If we’d been a minute later, he would’ve died from the smoke.”
Her husband, Jared, rushed home, but there was nothing they could do.
“We were just standing there, watching it burn,” she said.
“Jared thought maybe we could get the sprinklers going, but it was just too far gone.”
Firefighters arrived within 20 minutes and managed to contain the blaze, but by then the damage was done.
Jade, a professional photographer, lost all of her work equipment, including multiple laptops and cameras.
“I can’t actually work right now. My home studio is still standing, but it’s been smoked out, and there’s no power or water. I’ve had to cancel everything.”
The family is now living in emergency accommodation while their insurer sorts out longer-term arrangements. But the stress is far from over.
“We’re meant to leave the cabin on Friday, and no one can tell us what happens after that,” she said. “We’re just taking things day by day at the moment.”
Amid the devastation, firefighters managed to recover a few small miracles, a blue go bag Jade had packed years ago, filled with childhood keepsakes and important documents, and, astonishingly, the family’s passports, found untouched in a partially burnt cupboard.
“We’re meant to go overseas next month,” Jade said.
“We’ve already paid for the flights and everything’s non-refundable, so we’ll still go … We probably need the break now more than ever.”
“Thank God the passports weren’t damaged. It still shocks me that they were in perfect condition.”
She said they felt lucky in some ways, even amid the loss.
“There are so many silver linings. It’s horrible, but we’re trying to focus on the fact that we’re all safe. That it didn’t happen while we were asleep.”
Her children are still trying to grasp what they’ve lost.
“I don’t think it’s really hit them,” Jade said. “It’s the small things. When they go to grab a teddy or ask for something, and then realise it’s just not there anymore.”
The hardest part now, she says, is simply trying to function through the chaos.
“You don’t realise how much mental energy it takes to rebuild everything,” she said.
“Even going to the shops is exhausting — remembering what we need, what we’ve already replaced, what we’re still missing. It’s just constant.”
Since then, her sister has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the family rebuild. More than $13,000 has already been raised so far.
Jade said they were grateful, but the needs are overwhelming.
“We literally need everything. Clothes, toothbrushes, hair stuff, kids’ things. You can’t write a list for your whole life. You just realise what’s missing day by day.”
She’s now urging others to check their wiring and revisit their insurance.
“You never think it’ll happen to you. And then it does. And you’re left calling your insurer, wondering what you’re even covered for. We were lucky to have it, but definitely still underinsured.”
Still, she knows it could have been far worse.
“We could’ve died. That’s the truth. If it had happened just a little earlier, while we were still in bed, this could be a completely different story. Because we all had a massive sleep in, and everyone was sound asleep that morning. It would have been awful.”
Originally published as Cockatoo Valley family return to find home incinerated after freak electrical fire
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