By Michael Newhouse
A ST ALBANS resident suffered burns but was lucky to be alive after waking just in time to see a fire destroy the front of his home last Friday morning.
Neighbours were comforting the 43-year-old man for burns to his arms and legs when the Metropolitan Fire Brigade arrived at the burning Moonstone Crescent house soon after 5am.
An ambulance spokeswoman said the man had refused treatment at the scene, and was not taken to hospital.
It is believed he was asleep in the loungeroom when the fire started, waking him soon after the blaze began.
Although the arson squad was notified about the fire, police said they were not treating the fire as suspicious.
A police media spokesman said the fire probably began in the kitchen, spreading to the front living room.
Sunshine Station Officer Geoff Audsley said six fire crews from Sunshine, Keilor and St Albans attended the fire, which had been brought under control by about 8.30am.
“It’s probably accidental, and we’re trying to determine what actually caused it,” Mr Audsley said.
“The roof is on the loungeroom floor, it’s burnt right through, and there’s only a couple of rooms at the back of the house” – two bedrooms, the bathroom and toilet – “that have survived”, he said, saying what’s left was not much more than a skeleton.
“The bricks are still there and all the aluminum windows have melted, the front’s burnt off and it’s just a shell,” he said.
Mr Audsley stressed that everyone should have a working smoke alarm in their home.
If the man had fitted a working smoke alarm he wouldn’t have needed luck to pull off a lucky escape, Mr Audsley said.
“Because the fire was so extensive, so large and there was so much damage done to it, you sort of wonder how it got so advanced before he actually worked out what was going on,” he said, referring to the man’s lucky escape from the burning house.
