Within minutes of seeing smoke billowing from a house down the street a Seville Grove resident stepped into gear to call on the community for donations.
A Riverside Lane Department of Housing property went up in flames last Thursday about 6.40am with emergency crews from Armadale, Maddington and Murdoch called to extinguish the blaze.
Resident Linda Warwick told The Examiner she woke up to someone yelling as the neighbour over the road was banging on the doors and windows trying to get residents out of the home.
The mother was in the shower at the time and her four young children were believed to be asleep but they all managed to escape with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Mrs Warwick said she called her daughter-in-law and asked if she had any friends with clothes for the young family.
“I thought if we could just get some clothes for them for a couple of days that would be great but people were so nice even bringing brand new clothes with receipts and toiletries, food and even gift vouchers,” she said.
“People were also dropping money and donations at my granddaughter’s hair dressing salon in Byford, it was amazing.”
Seminole Gardens resident Ashleigh Cleal said she was sitting under her back patio when she heard a bang from the property immediately in front of her.
“It sounded like a car back firing,” she said.
“I went to go inside to wake up my kids for school and that’s when I heard two more bangs and then I saw the smoke, which looked like it was coming from the garden but then it got thicker and blacker.”
Ms Cleal said she stood on a crate in her garden and started yelling to alert the people inside the home.
“At that point I think they had already escaped but it was all I could do,” she said.
“I saw the carport fall in on itself and all the bikes were burnt and had started to melt.
“I think there was one room at the back which looked like it was untouched because the curtains were okay but everything else seemed to be destroyed.”
A Department of Fire and Emergency spokesperson said the cause of the fire was accidental and caused about $100,000 damage to the Seville Grove home.
