Just after 8.30pm last night (9 June), Melton Fire Brigade was paged to a reported house fire. The address was familiar to some of the responding crews, as they had only been there a month earlier for another fire.
When the first trucks arrived crews found a weatherboard house well alight.
“We had to force entry with a quick-cut saw as the fence was locked, with the bolt cutters not even making a mark on them,” explained Senior Station Officer Cory Woodyatt. “As we were making entry to the property, I could hear multiple tiles coming in, so my first thought was not to send anyone inside.”
With initial crews attempting to knock down the fire from the outside, they also used a thermal imaging camera to look into the windows to check for any occupants.
“There was a mattress inside one of the rooms that we could see from a window, so my initial thought was there may have been someone inside. A quick external search proved there was no one living there as the house was under renovation at the time,” said Cory.
Fire quickly raced into the roof space of the house, completely destroying what was left of the premises after the last fire a month ago.
The fire was brought under control within 30 minutes, with firefighters extensively overhauling as much as possible without entering the building.
This was also the first major fire that Firefighter Josh Martin had attended since graduating as a career firefighter late last year.
“I’ve been to a lot of fires, but they were either pots on a stove or burnt toast. This was my first major firefight.”
Trucks in attendance were:
Melton – pumper, rescue, pumper-tanker, tanker, FCV.
Sunbury – BA support.
Due to the suspicious nature of the fire, police were called, and subsequently put a crime scene guard on the premises overnight.
The Incident Controller was Senior Station Officer Cory Woodyatt from Melton Fire Brigade.
Pictures by Blair Dellemijn - CFA Photographer.
Author: Blair Dellemijn