Fatal fire: ‘It was very scary’

A retired couple fled their house in Weld St in Seddon after their neighbour’s fatal house fire on Thursday evening.

Mike O’sullivan’s wife just got out of the shower on Thursday night when she heard a bang.

‘‘I thought someone was banging on the door,’’ she said.

‘‘I looked at the window, you couldn’t see the house through the flames. So I grabbed my husband and called 111.’’

The couple, who are in their 70s, ran outside to fight the fire with garden hoses.

‘‘We did the best we could but unfortunately we could not save him because it was too late by the time we saw the fire . . . it was too late to get into the house.

‘‘The hedge just charred up and we had little fireballs coming over.

‘‘We tried to help but the way it was ... I was standing over there and there were little tiny sparks coming over, one of them hit Mike on the face and me in my hairline,’’ she said.

Police said one person was removed from the burning house in a critical condition and died at the scene.

The O’sullivans, who used to look after their neighbour, said he was in his 70s, living by himself. ‘‘We knew he was in there. ‘‘We feel sorry for the family. ‘‘We don’t know how it started. ‘‘It just took off.

‘‘It was very scary.’’

When the emergency services arrived at the scene, they asked the O’sullivans to leave their house. ‘‘It was frightening.’’

The fire burned their hedge and broke about four windows and a sliding door at their property.

‘‘If I had not been there, I think we would have lost our house.

‘‘We could have been in town and come home to no home probably,’’ she said.

The cause and circumstances of the fire were yet to be determined, police said in a statement.