A man and his two children escaped suffering only minor smoke inhalation following a blaze that engulfed a front room of their Bligh Park home and destroyed a car parked on the lawn.
The fire broke out in the front room of the Alexander Street home shortly before 4pm on Monday, January 6, quickly engulfing the front of the house and spreading to the car, according to Hawkesbury police.
Nearby resident Scott Brown said he had been relaxing at the rear of his home when he realised the house was ablaze.
“I was just sitting out the back having an afternoon beverage and smelt a little bit of smoke in the air,” he told reporters. “I looked out the back and the car across the road was well alight. It looked like the house as well.”
Fire and Rescue NSW Duty Commander Blue Mountains Acting Inspector Bruce Cameron said multiple calls were received from the public after the blaze broke out.
“Fire and Rescue Command Centre received numerous triple 0 calls to a house alight in Bligh Park,” he said. “On arrival they found a house with flame and smoke through the roof.
“The house was totally involved at the front and crews got to work conducting search and rescue and firefighting.
“There was a male and two young children in the house, they had self-evacuated but had received minor smoke inhalation and were treated by ambulance [officers] on scene.
“We had four fire engines attend, they quickly deployed hose lines and conducted firefighting and search and rescue, and the fire was knocked down in about 20 minutes.”
Firefighters managed to prevent the blaze spreading to adjoining properties, he said.
Hawkesbury police stated the cause of the blaze was not suspicious.
“There are no suspicious surrounding the fires cause with belief an electrical fault is to blame,” police stated.
Acting Inspector Cameron said firefighters were reiterating the need for every home to have a working smoke alarm.
“Every house should have a working smoke alarm, that’s absolutely imperative,” he said.
“[The alarm] needs to be checked regularly and have a battery replaced with daylight savings. That way we can ensure [the] battery is always working to warn occupants – like we’ve seen today – … that there’s smoke in the house and to close the door and leave the premises.”
