Neighbour saves man from burning home

A man has been credited with saving his neighbour's life, after he spotted the home next door go up in flames early this morning.

Brian Makins told 7News he was looking out the window when he saw his neighbour's smoking air-conditioning unit, atop of his Morphett Vale home, in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

"It was just a fluke that I happened to look through that direction," he said, "And see his fawny-coloured airconditioning unit orange against a black sky."

"As I watched it, it just ignited and went up like a Roman candle, and from there it just got really bad."

Mr Makins said he noticed his neighbours' car in the driveway and ran over to see if anyone was home.

"I belted and banged on the door until he finally woke up."

Mr Makin's neighbour, Phil McPeake, says he's grateful for the wake-up call, as his smoke alarm did not go off.

"I opened the door and he says to me, 'your airconditioner is on fire,'
and from there on it got worse."

"Probably the only thing I could say is that we have a smoke detector in the house, it might pay to have them in the roof."

Because when I got up the fire was quite set in the airconditioner the alarm system didn’t go off until I was on the roof trying to put it out," he said.

Metropolitan Fire Service spokesman, Greg Smithson, said it's a warning for all home owners with air conditioners to make sure they are properly serviced.

"If anyone’s got an evaporative air conditioner on the roof and you hear anything or you notice any difference in the performance, certainly switch the thing off and get it checked," he said.

"In a roof-mounted evaporative air-cooler a fire can spread particularly fast, given that the unit is operating solidly for hours on end,"

"Unfortunately the airconditioning ducting that they use is not fire-resistant and will spread the fire."

"As happened last night, the fire spreads through the duct-work and then drops into individual rooms in the house," he said.

The fire left a $150,000 damage bill.