Fire crews, already in their gear, were around the corner at a training session when the pagers went off at 1pm.

Within minutes, two full crews from Willatook and Macarthur were on scene where flames from an outside shed fire were licking the roof of the three-bedroom house on High Street.

“The vinyl cladding was already melting,” Macarthur CFA communications officer Graham Winduss told The Standard. 

Mr Winduss said it normally took crews 10 minutes to reach the scene.

“Another 10 minutes and I reckon the house would have been engulfed,” he said. “We were lucky to save the house.

“They (the crews) were already in their turn out gear and training — they were doing a truck recovery.” 

“How lucky is that?” 

A woman at home at the time of the fire was uninjured.

The house received minor smoke damage.