The dramatic rescue behind the burning home picture

Shaun Veitch helped rescue the owner of the house featured in the now viral burning home photograph, mere seconds before the roof collapsed.

A young woman was rescued by boat from her home as it was almost totally submerged in floodwaters – then burst into flames. The photo reposted by local artist Penny Evans shows the roof of the house in Lismore being ravaged by fire as water laps over the eaves. Picture: Supplied

The last thing Shaun Veitch expected to see in the rising flood waters of South Lismore was a house on fire.

However, while trying to help in the aftermath of what he describes as a “tidal wave of water and steel” that ripped through the streets, Mr Veitch noticed flames ripping through the semi-submerged house of his neighbour.

House owner Rahima Jackson, who had been waiting for help on the roof of the house due to the floodwaters, was trapped.

“We yelled out to her, but it was just getting worse and worse,” Mr Veitch tells The Australian.

“I'm on the phone to the fire brigade yelling ’you need to get a chopper here, she’s going to die.

“Five minutes later a yellow chopper flew over, but they didn't stop or turn around or pick her up.

“About 10 minutes later another one flew over and that too didn't pick her up.”

It was the quick thinking of Mr Veitch’s neighbour Troy that saved Ms Jackson’s life.

“Troy got his boat in the flood water … he got to Rahima and got her in the boat – and as he got her in the boat the whole roof collapsed – he got to her within seconds,” Mr Veitch said.

A photo of Ms Jackson’s burning home engulfed by the floods went viral on social media, symbolising for locals the multiple layers of the disaster.

“ (Ms Jackson) turned the mains off at the box – but we've got no idea why the house burned down – it seemed to be the insulation that was burning,” he said.

For Mr Veitch, who was in the boat that ferried Ms Jackson to safety, the dramatic rescue was just one of many that he was part of throughout the day.

“There were boats everywhere – Lismore‘s only got 2 flood boats, so they weren’t SES boats,” he said.

“We went back for another neighbour who’s in her 80s – she had security screens set up at her house, so I grabbed the anchor and used it to rip those off to get her out through the window.

“We took our boat to our 92-year-old friend Jack‘s house … he was up to his neck in water in his house when we arrived.

“We just kept going and going and going.”

On Thursday Ms Jackson was still too upset about the incident to talk about it.