Firefighters were called to the scene of a house fire in Jiggi this morning, where two brick and tile units were engulfed by flames.

Lismore Fire Station Commander Fraser Hindry said two fire trucks from Lismore Fire Station arrived first on the scene at the Jiggi Road property. 

Five more fire trucks from the Rural Fire Service then arrived on the scene and 15 firefighters contained the blaze.

“We arrived at about 10.30am and there was lots of black smoke,” Commander Hindry said. “The fire had spread through the roof into both units and was brought under control.

 “Our first priority was checking the occupants were out, but the evacuation had already been done by the tenants, so we carried out defensive fire fighting on the burning building to contain the fire.

“There was an initial problem with the water supply, due to their being no reticulated water on the street, so we used the water tank and the swimming pool out the back.”

Commander Hindry said the operation was carried out with full safety precautions for fire fighters.

“Fire fighter safety was paramount,” he said. “We put in an exclusion zone around the bricks and walls collapsing and isolated the electricity, by getting the power company to switch it off.”

Rural Fire Service Group Captain Robbie Graham at the scene of the fire.

Rural Fire Service Group Captain Robbie Graham said it took about 20 minutes for the trucks to reach the scene from Lismore.

“The first five minutes of a fire is crucial,” Captain Graham said.

“We missed that window due to the distance from town. It was all over when we arrived – we weren’t able to stop the spread of the fire through the house by containing it to an individual room.

“It’s never a good outcome in these situations.

“There’s still lots of steam and we’ll look for the hot spots still smouldering. There’s a lot of glass and tile and the ceiling lining is broken and on the floor. 

“We need to use a rake hose to get the water underneath the piles of fallen house materials.”

There were no direct neighbours to the property.

The fire is currently being investigated by police.