Helensburgh house fire adds to NSW toll of homes destroyed by fire

The fire started just after 9am as residents of the quiet residential street, Postman's Track, were just starting their day.

Halfway across Australia the owners of the two-storey brick home were having the holiday of a lifetime on a caravan trip.

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It's the call you never want to receive, but the couple have now left South Australia to return to their totally-destroyed family home.

Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said the fire is not being treated as suspicious.

"It's believed a heat gun is an area of interest in the cause of the fire," he said.

Nicole DeCortes Balague lives next door to the gutted house, and called triple-0 at 9.39am when she saw smoke and flames erupting from her neighbour's front window.

"Our neighbours across the road were already there with a garden hose and my husband put the hose on as well until the firefighters got here," she said.

As the flames raged, a side window of the home exploded sending flames shooting towards Mrs DeCortes Balague's weatherboard home.

"I ran in and got my daughter, she's only three, and got my bird. My daughter was really stressed so I called my sister who came and got them," she said.

Mrs DeCortes Balague and her husband watched on as flames erupt from the roof, and firefighters battled to douse the fire and stop it from spreading to homes either side

A day after the emergency Mrs DeCortes Balague was still shaken up about what she witnessed, but thankful her own house escaped with only a brown scalding mark.

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"I've never had to call triple-0 before, it was pretty stressful," she said

"You can knock it down and rebuild, but it'll never be the same."

The fire was so ferocious that 26 firefighters on seven trucks, including a ladder platform from Miranda, were sent to the house.

The home's roof collapsed and it took around 1.5 hours to contain the flames to the property and prevent them from spreading.

"It was difficult to extinguish because of the design of the house," FRNSW Inspector Andrew Erlik said.

Nobody was injured nor taken to hospital, but paramedics treated a man at the scene.

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