Three men in their 20s just managed to escape a fierce fire in Macquarie in the early hours of Sunday morning, thought to have started when clothes caught alight near a radiator.
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Fire crews returning to Belconnen Station from a car accident at Macgregor were able to respond quickly to a 000 emergency call at 6.19am.
Northside commander Ross Kennedy said everyone was still on high alert after the car accident and seconds away from jumping in the truck and getting to the fire when the alarm was raised..
When they arrived in Fulton Street, Macquarie, they found two of the occupants out the front of the burning home, but the third occupant was missing. He was later found at the rear of the home.
Paramedics treated one of the men for superficial burns to his legs. The two other patients were treated for smoke inhalation. All three were taken to the Canberra Hospital where one will remain because of smoke inhalation.
The fire started in a bedroom in the three-bedroom duplex and caused an estimated $100,000 worth of damage.
Commander Kennedy said clothes appeared to have been left too close to some type of radiant heater.
''Because of the damage, it is hard to tell exactly what type of heater it was,'' he said.
"We can see a steel or aluminium casing, probably more steel seeing it didn’t melt but can’t tell what was actually inside it.''
Crews have begun investigations into the cause of the fire.
Commander Kennedy said fires in residential areas mostly started in the kitchen, when food was left unattended, or because of badly maintained cooking areas.
During winter when electric blankets were turned on and power boards were overloaded fires also started.
Other causes were people drying clothes near heaters, or not cleaning out lint filters in their dryers.
