Police are investigating a suspicious house fire which caused extensive damage to a Mudgee home on New Year’s Day.
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The tenants were preparing to vacate the Lewis Street home when the fire started around 11:30pm on Monday, January 1.
Mudgee Fire and Rescue deputy captain, Craig Muscat, was one of the first on the scene.
“When we arrived the back bedroom was fully alight,” he said. “We had two crews with breathing apparatus and were able to knock the fire down very quickly.”
He explained the forensic investigation was unclear on the cause of the fire and police were investigating.
Chief inspector Jeff Boon, from Mudgee Police, said the fire started outside the house.
“Police are treating the fire as suspicious and we’d like to hear from anyone in the community with information to call Mudgee Police or Crime Stoppers,” he said.
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The Lewis Street house had recently undergone renovations and was sold in October 2017.
Lewis Street resident Heath Gay was woken by the fire and told the Mudgee Guardian he tried to help.
“11:45[am] I woke up to a loud bang, I looked outside and nobody seemed to be around, so I quickly run across the road to see if everyone was OK,” he said.
Heath’s grandfather died in a house fire on Lewis Street in 2012 and at the time the family claimed the deadly fire, ‘could have been more quickly beaten, and possibly non-fatal, if the street’s underground fire hydrants had not been buried and rendered inaccessible during the road’s resurfacing’.
Heath claims firefighters had trouble accessing the water mains again on New Year’s Day.
“They spent five minutes trying to chip the first one away and they got it open,” he said. “Once the fire was under control they tried to chip away at the second water main and had trouble getting it open.”
Mr Muscat has refuted the claims, saying they had “no trouble accessing the water”.
“We found the hydrants straight away and had no trouble filling the trucks,” he said. “We regularly check the hydrants and will notify Council of any issues.”
A Council spokesperson said they had, “not been advised of any hindrances in accessing the fire hydrants for this fire event from the Fire Department.”