FORENSIC police and specialist fire investigators remained at the scene of a fatal housefire in Lake Macquarie into the evening on Friday.
Firefighters deployed a drone and a dog and police combed the area as they pieced together how a woman, believed to be in her 80s, died after a blaze broke out at Lake Munmorah.
The house remained cordoned off on Friday evening while emergency services worked, though the fire had been extinguished earlier.
Emergency services were called to a single-storey home on Clarence Street about 10.30am after reports the house was alight.
Initial reports from police indicated everyone at the home had been accounted for, but police later confirmed the elderly lady had sadly been found dead.
It's understood she had been in a room at the back of the property.
Police said she had not yet been formally identified by Friday afternoon.
Specialist investigators from Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) operated a drone over the house on Friday afternoon as they examined the scene.
A FRNSW dog was also seen entering the home, while police forensic crews also remained at the scene.
Crews from the Rural Fire Service (RFS) and FRNSW worked together to extinguish the flames earlier that day.
Ambulance paramedics and police had also been tasked to the scene, and electricity crews were called on to assess any damage to the network.
Local residents reported hearing vehicles racing under lights and siren to the home on Friday morning as part of the large emergency response, and the first police on the scene found the house "well alight".
Investigations continue, and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
