The quick thinking of a home-owner in Claremont saves house.
One moment you can be in your home, peaceful and cosy beside the crackling fire, and the next moment you could be seconds away from disaster.
Quick thinking of a home-owner in Claremont last night prevented, what could have been, a disastrous house blaze after a chimney fire subsequently set fire to the roof of his house.
FESA Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) and State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers were called to a 3-storey property in Airlie Street, Claremont, at around 9pm last night, following reports of a chimney on fire. On arrival at the scene, FRS crews found the chimney well ablaze. Concerns were immediately raised as the house has a large, and highly combustible, timber shingle roof. Moments later, an area of roof adjacent to the chimney caught fire. The fire was quickly brought under control by FRS, and damage was localised to a relatively small area.The scene was then handed to the SES.
Northshore SES spokesman said 'We despatched a 12 man team to Airlie Street following reports of damage caused by a roof fire. Once the fire had been extinguished, we could see significant damage from inside the roof space.
However getting access to the outside of the slippery, steeply pitched, 3 story roof in order to facilitate repairs was another issue altogether' SES crews set up a roof-safety system to enable access to be made. Once crews were safely in place, temporary repairs to the hole in the roof were completed, with SES crews finishing on scene in the early hours of Thursday morning.
'Clearly the quick actions of the owners in dialling FRS on 000 have helped minimise the fire damage, and by despatching a large 12 man team, the SES were able to quickly and effectively gain access to a truly challenging roof in order to make temporary repairs to the home'
