A sister has revealed how she helped her younger siblings escape a devastating fire that tore through their home in minutes early on Thursday.
Five brothers and sisters, the youngest aged just seven, were asleep inside the Canning Vale property in Perth’s southeast when flames took hold about 4.30am.
Smoke alarms and the sound of breaking glass alerted Agot Dau, 21, to the danger and she was soon helping everyone flee the property.
“(I) banged on all their doors. My little sister was quite panicked, but I have to be the calm person to make sure that everybody is okay,” Agot Dau said.
Neighbours said Dau had showed “incredible courage and composure” in evacuating her younger siblings from the home and calling emergency services.
Dau also had to call her mum, a nursing assistant working a shift overnight, to tell her what happened.
“It breaks my heart because I know how hard she works,” Dau said of her mother. “She’s actually been saving to buy a house.”
Nearby security cameras showed flames billowing from the property, while neighbours armed with hoses and extinguishers did what they could.
“Unfortunately nothing could have saved the house,” local Krishelle Carroll said.
The family had lived at the rental on Pelham Gardens for seven years. They said they did have electrical issues and had booked an electrician to visit on Thursday.
The cause of the fire, which damaged about 90 per cent of the home, is undetermined. Fire crews flagged earlier “it’s definitely nothing suspicious” and “likely to be accidental, possibly an electrical fault.”
Sadly all of the family’s belongings and treasured memories are gone. They will stay with relatives and friends until they can find something more permanent. Neighbours have started an online fundraiser to help them “begin rebuilding their lives.”
The emergency comes a day after authorities issued a warning about electrical items in the home. There were 990 house fires in WA in 2025, 73 more than the year before. There has been more than 400 house fires recorded in 2026, including two that have been deadly.
Fires sparked by lithium-ion battery fires are beginning to plateau, but blazes sparked by common household items including battery chargers, powerboards, clothes dryers and hair dryers are rising sharply.
“These fires can spread really quickly. So you’re looking at four, five, six minutes to have parts of a room involved, depending on how much flammable material is in it,” Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said. “Obviously the first thing we want people to do is make sure they’ve got a plan with their family (and know) exactly what they’re going to do should a fire occur in their home.”
The advice is to only buy electrical products from trusted retailers.
