House on Grubb Street, Koongal, destroyed in suspicious fire

A house in North Rockhampton with significant Indigenous artwork has been destroyed in a devastating fire that police are treating as suspicious. Here’s what we know.

A house in North Rockhampton with significant Indigenous artwork on its front facade has been destroyed in a devastating fire that police are treating as suspicious.

Emergency services were called to the house fire at 252 Grubb Street, Koongal, on Saturday at 7.23pm.

According to a Queensland Police Service spokeswoman, the house was “fully ablaze”.

The fire was extinguished by Queensland Fire and Emergency Fire crews about 8.20pm.

Fire crews remained on scene throughout the night to monitor the scene in case the fire reignited.

A house at 252 Grubb Street, Koongal, has been destroyed in a fire on August 6, 2022. Picture: Aden Stokes

Queensland Ambulance Service reported no one was injured.

According to Grubb Street residents, there was nobody in the house at the time.

A neighbour said he saw the flames, dialled Triple-0 and got his hose out to protect his property.

“I tried to protect my place from going up,” he said.

“You can’t do anything with that, it just engulfed so quickly.

252 Grubb Street, Koongal, pictured in March 2022.

“There is not much left of it.”

Another neighbour said he had helped get a woman out of a neighbouring house so she wouldn’t get caught in the fire.

The Koongal house sold at Rockhampton Regional Council’s unpaid rates auction on March 18 for $75,000 to Lani Hilder from Mount Larcom.

Ms Hilder spoke to The Morning Bulletin after the auction and said she had driven past the property and that it needed a lot of work but she saw the potential.

“I’m sure we will fix it up and it will be beautiful,” she said.

Lani Hilder with her son Reylan. She was successful bidder of 252 Grubb Street, Koongal.

She said she had bought a few houses before and fixed them up.

A neighbour said the buyers had found “coffee cups and that” in the house.

Another neighbour said people had been in and out of the house and that there was “coppers around all the time”.

The QPS spokeswoman said a crime scene had been declared and that police were treating the fire as suspicious.

Investigations are continuing to determine the cause of the fire.

Originally published as House on Grubb Street, Koongal, destroyed in suspicious fire