By Brendan Rees
A family of five have been lucky to escape injury after the second storey of their Cranbourne North home went up in flames.
Emergency services were called to the Sierra Boulevard blaze about 8.30am on Saturday 2 May where they found the roof of the townhouse well alight.
About 20 firefighters arrived on scene where they extinguished the flames within 45 minutes.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation but has not been deemed suspicious.
Cranbourne senior station officer Ian Glass credited working smoke detectors of the home for saving the family who made it out safely before fire crews arrived.
A 16-year-old boy and a 37-year-old man were however treated by paramedics for smoke inhalation and transported to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition.
“They were upset obviously; they lost a lot of their belongings but they were very helpful when we were on scene,” Mr Glass said.
“Our crews did a very aggressive internal attack and external and we managed to keep it just to upstairs but there’s significant water damage as well.
“We had a lot of wind too push the fire through the house and being a tin roof it’s like an oven.”
An assembly of fire appliances were on scene from Cranbourne and Narre Warren CFA brigades as well as an aerial appliance from Oakleigh MFB, which was also called to assist.
With the increased numbers of people working from home or remotely from their normal workplace, CFA is warning of the potential for increased risk of structural fires.
Makeshift arrangements that allow for normal school or office work to be performed at home has the potential to increase the risk of fire.
“People need to remember that when electrical appliances are left on for an extended period of time they could overheat and have disastrous effects,” CFA deputy chief officer Trevor Owen said.
“Make sure you turn off electrical appliances before going to bed. When leaving your home unattended it is best to unplug your electrical appliances.
“We also recommend checking your electrical appliances for product recall notices using the www.productsafety.gov.au website.”
