Sunshine Coast man who used a wheelchair dies in 'ferocious' Beerwah unit fire
Updated
A disabled man has died in a "ferocious" house fire on the Sunshine Coast.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) said they received triple-0 calls from neighbours just after 6:00pm on Thursday alerting them to the blaze in a small, low-set unit on Beerwah Parade at Beerwah.
Fire officers found the man, who was aged in his 30s and used a wheelchair, at the back of the building, about 10 minutes after they arrived but he had already died.
Acting Fire Inspector Matt Phillips said four fire trucks attended the blaze and officers had to cut their way into the unit through the garage.
"Their initial action was to try and get into the house, because there was one person reported missing at that stage, but because of the heat they were only able to initially search the garage," he said.
"They worked to put the fire out and they were able to make access to the rear of the building after quite some time and found a deceased person at the rear of the house.
"It was approximately 45 minutes [to put it out], it was quite a ferocious fire."
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There had been concerns the fire could spread to neighbouring units, but the blaze was contained to the single-level brick veneer home, although it was gutted.
"There's a house and a unit in close proximity, also a Telstra exchange building right next door as well, the crews did really well to stop that fire spreading between any of those adjoining buildings," Inspector Phillips said.
"Our fire investigation unit will attend the house this morning along with Queensland Police Service to carry out further investigations."
Queensland Police Senior Sergeant Steve Hall said the cause of the blaze was unknown and the incident was under investigation.
However, authorities are not treating the blaze as suspicious.
Police have contacted the man's family but are still trying to find out the circumstances surrounding the man's death.
Topics: fires, disasters-and-accidents, emergency-incidents, residential, beerwah-4519, maroochydore-4558, qld, brisbane-4000
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