Elderly man dies, family lucky to be alive after separate fires
Image: Twitter/Natasha Squarey
A family and their dog are lucky to be alive after their home went up in flames in the middle of the night.
Emergency services were called to the property on Kallaroo Road at Riverview just before 1am, finding it well alight.
A couple and their adult son managed to escape the blaze uninjured, along with their pet dog.
Their home was completely destroyed by the fire and two neighbouring homes had to be evacuated as a precaution.
Daniel has told journalist Deborah Clay the flames spread from the back deck into the roof in less than three minutes.
Daniel says it wasn’t long after he arrived home in #Riverview his dad called out to him there was a fire #Sydney pic.twitter.com/BjF83uF0l6
— DeborahClay (@DeborahClay) August 19, 2019
Whilst the scene is yet to be forensically examined, early investigations suggest the fire is not suspicious.
Elsewhere, an elderly man has died in hospital a day after being pulled from his burning home on the New South Wales south coast.
The 90-year-old was asleep in his home near Batemans Bay on Sunday night, when his mattress caught alight.
Emergency services dragged him from the home and rushed him to hospital in a critical condition.
He was unable to recover and died in Bateman’s Bay Hospital on Monday.