Alert neighbours averted major drama after an electric blanket caught fire in a McLachlan Street unit on Wednesday afternoon.
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The resident had left the unit only 45 minutes earlier.
Neighbour Cathy Thobald said: “I could hear the alarm go off. I could smell a bad smell. I thought I had better go and check and I could see all this smoke. I panicked and ran across the road to the coffee shop and called the fire brigade.”
Fire and Rescue NSW station officer Tom Fenlon said: “The resident was not home, it was either a faulty electric blanket or the way it has been used. We’ve gone in with breathing apparatus and extinguished the blanket.
“Thankfully it was during the day. If it was in the evening it could have been a different story. People should check their electric blankets,” he said.
