Furniture believed to have sparked house fire

Similarily, a repetitive message might sink in for some, but can fall on deaf ears for others, but paying attention could save your life.

With daylight saving ending recently, people may — or may not — have heard the annual cry of “change your clocks, change your smoke alarm batteries”.

If you pushed the advice aside to deal with another day, Fire Rescue Victoria is giving home dwellers a great example why you shouldn’t sleep on it.

An early-morning house fire in Wangaratta on Easter Monday could have extinguished the lives of five sleeping occupants when a device being charged via an electric couch’s USB outlet is believed to have sparked the blaze.

FRV firefighters were called to the Leishman St home at 5:45am following calls to 000 reporting a house fire.

Crews arrived on scene within six minutes to find a single-storey brick home fully involved in fire, with flames lapping both the inside and outside of the building.

They extinguished the fire in less than 30 minutes; however, damage to the lounge room, bedroom and roof of the home was sustained.

The five occupants were evacuated, with one suffering smoke inhalation treated by Ambulance Victoria.

“Thankfully, the occupants of this home were able to get out,” FRV Community Resilience assistant chief fire officer Darren McQuade said.

“Fires that occur overnight while you are sleeping are more likely to be fatal.”

A device had been plugged into the built-in charging port of an electric couch to charge overnight.

“That’s why it’s so important to have working smoke alarms in all living areas, the hallway and inside all bedrooms to alert you to a fire,” Mr McQuade said.

“It’s also a good idea to avoid charging devices overnight when you’re asleep.”