By ANEEKA SIMONIS
ARSON investigators have ruled a Pakenham house fire as non-suspicious despite reports a resident inside the burning home heard footsteps outside his bedroom around the time of the blaze.
Police are looking at a power board inside a bedroom cupboard as the likely cause of the fire which gutted the Racecourse Road North, Pakenham, home after 5.35am on Saturday 9 July.
CFA firefighter Darren Padgett confirmed the single-storey brick home was not fitted with smoke alarms at the time of the blaze.
He said that four of the five residents asleep inside at the time are lucky to be alive.
“If they hadn’t woken up, it could have been a whole different story,” he said.
One of the residents was forced to smash open his window, throw his possessions out on the deck and jump outside to safety.
A trail of blood was observed on the deck caused by glass shards which cut the resident during his hurried escape prompted by panic calls by a housemate who woke to the flames spreading through the roof.
A CFA spokesperson said it took firefighters about 30 minutes to get the blaze under control.
Cardinia Shire Council’s manager for Development and Compliance Services Debbie Tyson said the fire-ravaged home would need to undergo remedial works.
“Council’s municipal building surveyor attended the property after the fire as a routine response to a house fire,” she said.
“Council issued an emergency order to make the building safe.
“A building notice is likely to be issued in relation to the safety of the building.”
