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He told 7News that he fell asleep with a candle burning, and when he woke up he found the couch he was sleeping in on fire. He burnt his hands trying to shove it through his front door to prevent the fire from spreading. Lucario told us that the sofa was just too heavy for him to get out of the house in time.

Allan Lucario, For Victim
"The fire started up there by a lighted candle. I was reading and I got a little sleepy and I put the magazine down and the candle was like half burn, but I didn't out it. So I fell asleep and what awoke me was the smoke and heat, because it had caught the sofa that I was sleeping on. I got up and I tried to roll the sofa out the upstairs house by opening the door and I said if I threw it downstairs then it would climate the problem. But I wasn't strong enough to roll that sofa because it was big and heavy. Its one of those big old heavy sofas and I couldn't get it out. So the fire just started to blaze and got out of hand. When I open the door and yelled out for help, the police was right downstairs in their mobile, so they got out and they ran upstairs and they helped me to get out of the house. So I got out and a few minutes later the fire service came along and that's then they brought the fire under control."

Ted Smith, Fire Chief - NFS
"The fire department went into operation, contained and extinguished that fire. At the conclusion of that fire, the upper flat was gutted by the fire."

Reporter
"Were you able to save anything?"

Allan Lucario, For Victim
"No, everything is lost, about $7,000 worth of items in there. All my personal effects, my documents; passport, driver's license, Social Security card - everything gone."

While the Fire fighters were trying to get the blaze under control, one of them injured himself when the verandah of the upper flat gave way due to the fire.