A father has died after a fire tore through a home in Alkimos, north of Perth.
The blaze broke out just before 10.30pm on Monday. Neighbours heard a bang and called triple zero.
They armed themselves with hoses and tried to fight the flames but the man could not be saved.
“When we got out the house has just erupted, the roof has gone up and we just saw a massive orange fireball and smoke blowing over that way,” one neighbour, Matthew, said.
“Then I saw the flames out the back and then the popping just got bigger and bigger and then flames,” another neighbour, Kerry, said.
“We started hosing our fencing and tried to do a little bit of our house and some of theirs but it was so intense the flames.”
Firefighters cut their way through the garage door to get water on the blaze.
Inside at the back of the house crews found the man dead.
It’s understood the couple who own the property recently moved interstate.
The man’s wife and young daughter were not home at the time.
Neighbours said earlier in the night they heard a man yelling and the sound of glass breaking.
“Police don’t believe there’s any third person involved in lighting the fire,” Detective Sergeant Chris De Bruin said.
