Warrnambool family loses possessions after fire guts new home

Nuntida Jessadatitikul and her two children - Cindy, 3, and Gavin, 5 - were fast asleep when her husband Daniel Gilligan woke her.

He said he was just about asleep when the smoke alarm went off, but it was so quiet he at first thought it may have been the house next door.

"Sure enough the fridge was on fire, so I ran back to the bedroom and got Jesse up," he said.

The grabbed a child each and took them outside and put them in the car, which luckily was unlocked.

Mr Gilligan said he thought he'd be able to put the fire out himself and he only got the kids out as a precaution.

"I tried to put the fire out. I pulled it out and put a blanket on it and tried to stomp it out but I ended up burning myself. I got a really big blister," he said.

"Putting the blanket was the only thing I did before it got too smokey.

"After the smoke was too black I went around to the backyard and got the garden hose and tried to spray it. The window had broken by then and I was spraying it but it wasn't doing anything.

"I think the fire got quite big at one stage. The neighbours said there was flames going everywhere.

"I thought the house was gone. I was a bit of a mess."

He ended up being taken to hospital that night so his burnt feet could be treated.

The couple had only just purchased their home in December, and insurance assessors were due to visit on Monday to inspect the damage.

He is hoping the frame is OK and the house can be saved. "Everything is black from front to back," Mr Gilligan said.

Mrs Jessadatitikul said that after she put the kids in the car, she ran back inside to get her phone to call the fire brigade.

She said at that stage she had lost sight of her husband and was calling out to him: "Where are you?"

"You never think it will happen to you," she said.

The keys to their cars were lost in the fire so they can't be driven. Their friends at the Cattleya Thai Restaurant has lent them a car and is letting them stay at their house.

Also gone in the fire was the brand new Thai passports that Mrs Jessadatitikul had only just had renewed in Melbourne two days before the fire - something she will have to do all over again.

Mrs Jessadatitikul said the only thing she had been able to salvage from the fire was her phone and her wallet, which was by the front door.

Every room in the house has now either been burnt or damaged by the smoke and water.

Mrs Jessadatitikul said she was overwhelmed by the support from the Warrnambool community who had donated clothes for her children in the wake of the fire.

A Fire Services Victoria spokesperson said they were notified about the fire at 22.52pm and it was brought under control by three tankers, including the CFA, at 23.11pm.

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