‘Explosion’: Family home crumbles overnight
The next-door neighbours of a home which collapsed around a sleeping family have shared their terror when they woke to the sound of an explosion.
Fire crews were called to the property in Sydney’s west at 4.30am on Friday after reports the two-storey home had crumbled.
A woman, her partner and their young child had been sleeping when they woke to find their bedroom ceiling was beginning to cave in.
As the house began to shake, the family fled to the street.
Neighbours told The Daily Telegraph they were startled by what sounded like an “explosion” or a “car crash” in the middle of the night.
Christopher Benjamin rents the house next door and said he was terrified when he realised his own home was built by the same builders of the collapsing home.
“I was scared to get into my house this morning,” he said.
“I’m nervous … but the owner told us it is a different design.”
Photographs taken from the scene show the roof of the home slanted towards the ground with visible damage to the walls.
The structure had completely caved in, with four cars buried beneath the rubble and weight of most of the second story of the home.
Loose electrical wires can be seen poking out from the ceiling.
The couple, who had been renting the home, managed to rescue their three pets before the home collapsed.
A rescue truck which specialises in structural collapse was taken to the scene, a NSW Fire Service spokesman told NCA NewsWire.
An exclusion has been erected around the home and partially into a neighbour’s property.
The residents will be unable to re-enter the home.
They have since found alternative accommodation after the incident.
Adam Dewberry from NSW Fire and Rescue told 9News there was very little they could do due to the damage.
“It is pretty unusual; it is a very new home. So what’s occurred here will have to be investigated by the regulators and the other authorities and no doubt the owner and insurance,” he said.
