Home destroyed in early morning fire
THE force of a fire which destroyed a Bray Park home at the weekend was so loud, one nearby resident thought her own home was being broken into.
Murwillumbah Fire and Rescue captain Greg Hayes said they were called to the blaze, which gutted an O'Connor Dr home, about 3.40am on Sunday.
Assisted by Tweed Heads firefighters and HAZMAT, along with the Rural Fire Service, Mr Hayes said they knocked down the fire quickly.
But it had completely engulfed the single-storey brick home when they arrived.
Thankfully, there was no one inside the home at the time, he said.
"As far as I could tell there was no one living in the home at the time,” Mr Hayes said.
"It was fully involved and all the windows had blown out.”
Of numerous Triple-0 calls which were made, he said one involved a woman who interpreted the sound of windows smashing as a break-in.
"Another resident of the street thought someone was breaking into her house, it was that loud,” he said.
"It got to the point where it's in flashover.”
While the bulk of the blaze was quickly doused, he said the collapse of the roof made it difficult to reach some pockets of the fire.
"Because of the roof, which had collapsed... it was hard to extinguish a lot of it,” Mr Hayes said.
"We couldn't get right into the house.”
He said firefighters remained at the scene for about three and a half hours.
Police also attended and have been approached for comment.
