HERO: Neighbour Meagan Eriksen entered the burning home fearing a mother and her young son were inside. Picture: BRENDAN McCARTHY
CLEAN-UP: Incident controller Dale Stemmer. Picture: BRENDAN McCARTHY
SAFETY FIRST: A neighbour at the adjoining property hoses his roof as a preventative measure. Picture: BRENDAN McCARTHY
BLAZE: Smoke could be seen coming from the Shelley Street property. Picture: BRENDAN McCARTHY
SPRING Gully residents kicked in the front door of a burning ShellRey Street home and smashed a window in search of a woman and her baby yesterday.
A fire started on the balcony of the property about 4.20pm yesterday.
Neighbours reported a loud bang and rushed to the scene before attempting to put the fire out with garden hoses. Meagan Eriksen, who lives across the road, said she rushed into the home with two other neighbours after they realised the mother and her young son weren’t around.
“We didn’t know if she was all right, or if she was inside or had fallen over and hit her head,” she said.
“I kicked in the door and threw some washing over my mouth and ran in.
“We checked the bedrooms and the laundry and yelled out to her but didn’t get any answer.
“The house was filled with smoke and we couldn’t get upstairs.
“All the neighbours were terrific... it’s a neighbourhood working together.”
The woman and her son were later found to be safe at nearby property and more than 20 firefighters in five trucks extinguished the blaze.
The back deck appeared to be destroyed and the roof of the house was damaged. One witness, who wanted to be known only as Guenter, said he used a hose to help put out the blaze before firefighters arrived.
“The whole back veranda was up in flames,” he said. “It was up to the roof and beyond. It was a good neighbourhood reaction.”
Carolyn Wright, who lives across the road from the house, said everyone had gone into “a bit of a frenzy”. The temperature was around 39 degrees with 28km/h winds at the time of the fire and the home was surrounded by trees.
“The next door neighbours got their stuff out... with a (hot) day like today you just panic,” Ms Wright said. “But the CFA did a good job to get it under control.
“People like Meagan were heroes.”
The cause of the fire is not known.