A few minutes is all that stood between a family-of-four and certain tragedy on Saturday night when their Pelaw Main home went up in flames.
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Just before midnight, fire crews were called to Stanford Street to find the three-bedroom home engulfed in flames.
Brodie Duff and his wife Monique (who is three months pregnant) and their two young daughters Cali and Addison were asleep when the fire broke out around 11.50pm.
Mr. Duff said that it all happened very quickly but that the first thing he noticed was an orange glow coming from the hallway.
Mrs. Duff recalled the horrifying next few minutes when they realised their house was on fire.
“Brodie just woke me up and said, ‘What the hell is that?’,” she said.
“We could see this orange glow.
“Both the girls were asleep.
“I can just remember him saying, ‘Get the girls out’.
“The whole kitchen was on fire.”
Mrs. Duff said that the family had only just made their escape when the entire home went up in flames.
The family’s three dogs also escaped the fire unharmed.
Fire crews arrived shortly after midnight and would spend the next hour-and-a-half fighting the blaze.
It is believed to have been started by faulty wires and initiated in the roof of the couple’s bedroom.
A firefighter informed the family that they would have only had a couple of minutes to get out of the house alive.
“Just another few minutes and we would have been gone,” Mr. Duff said.
“They told us there would have only been four minutes from the time the fire started to when the house was completely in flames, for us to get out safely.
“I don’t think the firefighters could believe that we got out.”
Only the day before the couple had been at Cessnock Hospital where Mrs. Duff received her three-month ultrasound.
In a weird twist of fate, Mrs. Duff said that the man who performed the procedure was one of the firefighters who attended the family’s house on Saturday.
Fortunately no-one was harmed during the fire but the family was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
They had only been living in the home for 10 months, which was owned by Mrs. Duff’s parents Allan and Kelly James.
Mr. James said that he had bought the house as an investment and he had hoped it would day belong to his daughter and her family.
He said the fire comes as just the latest blow for the family, who had only just come to terms with the death of Mrs. James’s cousin Jamie Mitchell, who was killed at Paxton’s Austar coal mine in April.
However since Saturday’s fire, the family has been overwhelmed by support from the local community with streams of donations being brought forward.
“We have been so overwhelmed with the amount of support we have received,” Mrs. Duff said.
“We have just had people throwing money at us and saying, just do what you need to do.”
“It really restores your faith in humanity,” Mr. Duff added.
A Facebook page ‘Help out the Duff family’ has also been set up and can be visited for more information.
The family is currently staying in Kurri with their in-laws.