Elanora home lost to fire

A YOUNG couple have been left devastated and frantically searching for their three missing cats after a fire ravaged their Elanora home last night.

Ryan Hammond, 24, and his girlfriend Michelle were out at a football match when they were told they had lost everything in the blaze just after 7pm.

Mr Hammond’s mother, Yvonne Hammond, said it was the latest incident in a string of bad luck for her son.

She said when Ryan was 16, he had been crushed by a tonne of glass in a shipping container.

“He was in a wheelchair for 12 months and now this,” she said. “He couldn’t walk for over a year.”

Due to ongoing medical issues after his femur was snapped, Mr Hammond was also unable to work until recently.

“He’s lost all of it, everything except for the shed,” Ms Hammond said.

“He’s got nowhere to live now. My son’s lost everything.”

While Mr Hammond’s pet staffy, Blue, was lucky to be plucked out of the Holbrook Way yard by a quick-thinking bystander as the blaze took hold, Mr Hammond’s three pet cats remained missing.

Willow, Missy and Hunter are yet to be found.

Bilinga Fire Station Officer Tracy Dunn said the entire roof of the house had collapsed during the blaze and firies wouldn’t know the cause of the fire until it was investigated today.

“It’s destroyed,” he said of the house.

“Until we look in daylight, it’s really difficult to ascertain where it started. It was totally involved when we got here.”

Witness Micayla Cowan said she and her friends had been watching an outdoor movie put on by The Pines Elanora Sopping Centre when they noticed the blaze.

“It was orange, the house was just up in smoke,” she said.

“It was crazy, it happened so quickly.”

Queensland Ambulance Services operation supervisor Stuart Cutajar said they assessed three people, including a 48-year-old female and a 43year-old security guard for smoke exposure.

A 26-year-old woman, believed to be behind the rescue of the dog, was seen to for an injury to the top of her foot, but she declined treatment. It is understood the woman jumped over the fence to rescue the dog before injuring herself on the way out.

“It was pretty sore,” Mr Cutajar said. “We recommended she seek medical advice.”

The woman said she would instead take herself to the doctor for an assessment.

The scene remained guarded by police overnight.