Port Denison fatal house fire neighbours recall terrifying bang and black smoke on Friday morning

Neighbours have recounted the terrifying moment they realised a house on their street had caught alight and claimed a life on Friday morning. The cause of the house fire in Port Denison has not been confirmed by police as yet, but a neighbour living near the home said they heard ‘a big bang’. “I thought maybe it was a gas bottle,” she said. The neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was out of the house when the blaze ignited, but received a call from a friend informing her there was a house fire close by. “I was out of the house when it started. When I got back around lunchtime it (the house) was pretty much gone,” she said. Fire crews were alerted to the blaze on Ocean Drive at about 10.40am on Friday, and arrived 10 minutes later. The fire was controlled and contained by lunchtime. The neighbour has lived in Port Denison for the past 20 years and believes the occupant of the house which burnt down was a male. A German Shepherd is believed to have been rescued from the property and was placed in the yard of a nearby house. Another neighbour, who also wished to not be named, said she was working at her computer when she saw what she thought was fog. “I stuck my head up and realised it was smoke. It just went up so quickly, so so quickly,” the neighbour said. “And it was black smoke. As black as anything.” The neighbour believed the occupant who she had seen living at the house would have been in his 60s. Dongara police officer in charge Sgt Neal Boonzaaier said local forensics teams and an arson squad from Perth had attended the scene and would be making an assessment on the cause of the fire. On Monday morning, he said the identity of the victim was not yet able to be confirmed.