FOUR people are lucky to be alive after a fire completely destroyed their family home in Griffith North.
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A couple and their two young children were inside the house on Noorilla Street when a fire erupted in the early hours of today, Wednesday.
Griffith Fire Station captain Kevin Roth said thanks to a working smoke alarm the family managed to save themselves from the burning building.
"The house was fully involved when we arrived," Mr Roth said.
"The fire completely gutted the house - there is no stable panel left.
"The house is 19 x 20 meters. It was a huge fire, one of the worst I've seen."
The blaze left a trail of devastation throughout the building; destroying family belongings and making it dangerous for fire fighters to battle the fire.
"In several rooms the floor is completely gone," Mr Roth said. "And one of the old hot water tanks fell through the roof."
Deputy Captain Gerry Rizzeri said 14 fire fighters from Griffith and Yenda spent more than five hours at the scene, battling the blaze.
Mr Rizzeri said the family's cat managed to escape the tragedy on its own, but fire fighters had to free the family's dog after it got trapped under the house.
"The poor little bugger had found an opening under the house and he went in to hide, but couldn't get back out," the deputy captain said.
"He was probably in the worst place you'd want to be - with a raging fire right above you."
Fire investigators are currently at the scene to determine the cause of the fire, which is not being treated as suspicious.
> Read more about the tragic blaze in Friday's The Area News.