A BACKYARD blaze that threatened neighbouring homes at Cessnock took multiple crews to control last night.
Fire and Rescue NSW crews rushed to the scene of what was first reported as a backyard fire around midnight on Campbell Street, only to find structures in the yard were well alight and threatening nearby properties.
A resident who lives a few streets over saw the fire from her bedroom window and went to check if everyone was okay.
"It was very concerning," she said.
"There were so many trees in and around the yard and neighbouring houses.
"That house has a lot of stuff in it too as the guy is always collecting things, so we knew the fire had a lot of fuel to burn through."
She said even standing away from the fire, the heat was incredibly intense.
"We checked around the front to see if everyone was out of the house and a fire engine was there," she said.
"Then we went around to the park at the back as we could see it clearly.
"There was no fire brigade around the back for a good 20 minutes or so, we stayed there to monitor the tree in the corner of the park as it was smoking and had burning embers on it."
Firefighters faced difficulties accessing the property, but eventually managed to bring it under control with multiple crews in breathing apparatus using 38mm hoses.
A compressed air foam tanker had to be called in from Kurri Kurri to blanket the fire with foam and prevent reignition.
Quick work by multiple crews from around the area ensured houses on both sides of the blaze remained safe.
