West Warrnambool’s Chloe Grandell and her partner, Phil Ford, were at their Crawley Street home on Tuesday night when Ms Grandell smelt something melting. “I went to the laundry and opened the door and there was a whoosh of flames,” she said.

Ms Grandell told Mr Ford to get the fire extinguisher while she ushered her seven-year-old son outside.

Sadly, she said her pet bird which was on top of the dryer died in the incident. Ms Grandell said her parents lost everything in a house fire when she was a child and she was grateful the fire hadn’t spread. “We’re lucky it didn’t go any further,” she said.

Warrnambool fire brigade senior station officer David Ferguson said about 7.20pm the brigade was alerted to the fire in the laundry.

"Quick action by the occupants averted major disaster; as the mother of the young family ushered their young son out of the house the man attacked the fire with a dry chemical fire extinguisher that they had bought for just such an event,” he said.

Officer Ferguson said the quick action limited the damage to just the dryer, some clothes and the lino floor of the laundry. 

"There was also smoke damage. Staff and volunteers of the brigade worked together to ensure that the fire had not spread beyond the area of origin, to ventilate the smoke from the house and to clean up the debris and residual dry powder," he said.

"Firefighters then investigated the cause of the fire, which appeared to be a mechanical fault with the dryer. The occupants had been doing the right thing by cleaning the lint filter and operating the dryer correctly."

Officer Ferguson said buying the fire extinguisher and being brave enough to use it saved the house from extensive damage.

In a separate incident Warrnambool firefighters headed to Cobden to assist the local brigade deal with an ammonia leak at the Fonterra Milk plant on Tuesday night.

“More than 100 people were evacuated from the factory,” he said. “The responding brigades, including Cobden, Warrnambool, Colac and Bostocks Creek units, used chemical gas suits and an ammonia detector to determine the source of the leak.”