A mother of four who died in a house fire in Sydney’s south this morning was asleep when the blaze broke out, NSW police have said.
Dozens of firefighters were called to Paringa Place in Bangor just before 5:00am following reports of a large blaze.
They arrived to find the two-storey house well alight.
Two of the three family members managed to escape the inferno but the woman, 55, was found dead after the fire was contained.
She was sleeping in the bedroom on the second floor.
Superintendent Adam Newberry said the firefighters were unable to enter the house to save the woman.
“Firefighters worked extremely hard to enter the burning fire to commence the search, however due to the intensity of the fire firefighters had to withdraw,” he said.
It took more than an hour and a half to put out the blaze and the roof of the house is partially collapsed and most of the interior destroyed.
Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the blaze.
Fire’s crackling sounded like gunshots: neighbour
Paramedics treated the 33-year-old son of the woman at the scene before he was taken to Sutherland Hospital for smoke inhalation.
The other male occupant and also a neighbour who came to assist were assessed at the scene by paramedics.
Neighbour Martin Bristow told the ABC he was woken by crackling noises that sounded like gunshots.
“I stood there for a little while and the flames went up probably about three or four metres above the house,” Mr Bristow said.
“There was no chance of them [the firefighters] putting it out.”
Mr Bristow said it was lucky there was not much wind as the fire could have easily spread to other houses.
He said the house was in a run-down condition.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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