UPDATE: Wellard housefires not suspicious

THE Arson Squad determined the Wellard house fires were not suspicious, but the source of the fire is still unknown.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said samples from the scene had been sent away for further investigation.

Jessica Prowse, whose house on Gemstone Parade received minor damage, said she smelled something chemical and like smoke before she poked her head out the laundry door to look.

“I looked outside my laundry door and saw and heard the explosion,” she said.

“It was windy yesterday. The flames were whooshing so fast,” she said.

Part of the artificial lawn on her property burned away, and all the clothes from the washing line of her rented property were consumed.

The corner of the ceiling in her five-year-old son’s bedroom collapsed but she was amazed the curtains did not catch alight.

She was at home yesterday at the time of the fire with her partner Dylan, preparing their home for a rent inspection.

Police and fire investigators spent the morning trying to establish the cause of a fire that gutted two homes and damaged a third in Emerald Park estate yesterday.

Reports of loud bangs and fire were called in at 2.46pm yesterday and by 3.09pm two properties, on Ivory Place and Gemstone Parade, were confirmed to be on fire.

A third home on Gemstone sustained minor damage.