Edithvale Brigade, supported by two MFB appliances, were called to reports of smoke issuing from a house in Aspendale Thursday afternoon. Upon arrival firefighters found that a fire was well established in the roof space of the weatherboard home.
The house had been renovated in recent years, with a new corrugated iron roof replacing the original tile roof, which made immediate access to the roof space difficult. Whilst crews prepared to enter the building, a protection line was established to safeguard a caravan parked in the neighbouring driveway with additional care being taken due to the power in-feed line from the street supply being partially dislodged from the building, and the fuse could not be safely removed.
With the aid of the MFB’s ‘rattle gun’, roofing iron was removed to allow better access into the roof space to fully extinguish the fire.
Edithvale Incident Controller, Firefighter Peter Tripp praised the efforts of all the crews attending. “CFA and MFB crews always work well together, and it was no exception in this case. Though we were able to limit internal fire damage to the front third of the house, most of the roof space was affected by fire with the remainder of the house smoke & water damaged”, Tripp said.
The owners were not home at the time and arrived home shortly after fire crews arrived on-scene, raising concerns for their two cats, one of which they had only acquired the day before. A search of the house found the ‘new cat’ hiding under the couch in a back room, with suspicions that the older cat was hiding under the house and would come out soon.
Edithvale Pumper, Tanker, and Car as well as MFB Pumper 33 and Pumper Tanker 29 with a total of over 20 fire fighters attended this fire. In addition specialist breathing apparatus support from Frankston and MFB also attended the scene. CFA Fire Investigators arrived the next morning, determining the fire was due to an electrical fault. Police, United Energy and Gas Company were also on scene.
Author: Peter Tripp