Gillieston Heights family lost everything in a house fire

Offers of appliances, children's clothing and money are flowing in to help the Quinnell family make a fresh start. A Go Fund Me Page has already raised more than $4000.

The support has meant the world to them.

"I've had so many mums offer me clothes from their own kids, I've had people from high school pop up and want to help, and I'm like you're going to bring me to tears," Jacinta Quinnell said.

"The money from the Go Fund Me Page will help us with buying furniture and getting us back on our feet."

Her husband, James, was at their Holland Crescent home on Tuesday afternoon when he heard a loud bang in the garage.

He found a small fire and tried to put it out with a hose but it quickly became out of control and engulfed the entire house.

There was no time to save anything.

"He rang me five minutes later and said the whole house had gone up. I couldn't believe it," she said.

When fire crews from Maitland, Morpeth and Abermain arrived to help the blaze had destroyed the house and a cloud of smoke could be seen for kilometres.

Part of their job was to stop the fire from spreading to neighbouring homes.

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Mrs Quinnell didn't know what to think, or say, when she arrived and saw the damage for herself. She had been out with their 1-year-old son Nate and dog Pheobe when the blaze took hold.

"Thankfully the baby and the dog weren't in there when it happened," she said.

"My husband could have died in there.

"The firies put it out but apparently after we left it started again. They haven't found the cause of the fire yet."

The family had been renting the house for about a year and thought their belongings would have been covered under the landlord's insurance policy. They have now learnt the landlord's policy only covers the building and they should have had a contents insurance policy.

"I didn't even know that contents insurance was a thing, but i'll be looking into it from now on," she said.

"We lost two Harleys, a quad bike, a road bike - we had so much stuff and none of it was insured because we weren't using it."

Donate: search Family home destroyed by fire on the Go Fund Me webpage.

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