Gannawarra Times
INVESTIGATORS have not yet determined the cause of a fire which destroyed a house in Kerang in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Mourilyan Street property was gutted by the fire, which was reported just after 2am.
Kerang Police, Leading Senior Constable Dale Petri, said a neighbour who awoke to the sound of the flames contacted emergency services.
“He heard it, rang triple-0, ran across the road and yelled out to see if there was anyone in there,” LSC Petri said.
“He then ran to the neighbour’s house to get her out.”
Neighbouring property owner Ronda Boulton said she was awoken by the bang on the door.
“I was asleep in bed and they came and woke me up and told me to get out,” Ms Boulton said.
Peter Hall, who lives around the corner in Carbine Street, said he heard the town siren and then the crackling of the fire.
“When we got here, there was a massive glow, it was well and truly alight,” Mr Hall said.
“The smoke was pretty thick and the tree out the front went up.
“There were embers everywhere.”
Fellow Carbine Street resident, Rick Igoe, said he could see the fire from his bedroom window.
He and his cousin, Nathan Igoe, were overwhelmed by smoke when they tried to reach the scene.
“We came outside and the street was full of smoke.
“All you could smell was burning.
“We went to the corner of Carbine and Mourilyan streets and we couldn’t breathe because the smoke was really, really thick,” Mr Igoe said.
“We had to come around the other way.”
Two tankers, a pumper and a support vehicle from the Kerang Fire Brigade attended the scene.
Captain Ramon Steel said when crews arrived the house was around 80 per cent alight.
“We did an aggressive external attack with crews in breathing apparatus,” Mr Steel said.
“Once we knocked it down, we had crews go in to do an internal search.”
The Kerang brigade was then joined by a pumper from Cohuna, with the new arrivals providing Kerang firefighters with some respite.
Mr Steel said the blaze was under control by 3.30am and crews stayed at the scene mopping up until 5.30am.
Firefighters put to rest initial concerns that somebody may have been inside the house, confirming the building was empty.
CFA fire investigators and the Swan Hill criminal investigation unit spent several hours at the scene yesterday morning.
