MOUNT Burr residents have fondly remembered one of their own after a fatal house fire on Tuesday.
The body of an 82-year-old man was found among the charred remains of his Gray Terrace home which caught alight around 7pm.
His dog China also perished in the fire.
Mount Burr general store proprietor George Copelin said callers to his store yesterday spoke well of the deceased.
“People said he was a kind and wonderful man,” Mr Copelin said.
“He would call at my shop on his three-wheeled scooter every Sunday morning and buy a newspaper and a home-made beef pie.
“I always found him to be congenial and nice.”
The deceased was a widowed father-of-eight and he had worked at the long-closed Mount Burr sawmill.
It is understood he had lived at the house for around 50 years.
Among the 25 Country Fire Service volunteers who fought the blaze was Paul Terry.
At the time of the alarm being raised, he was undertaking his duties as a trainer in the changerooms of the nearby Mount Burr United Football Club at “Mick” and Jean Walker Oval.
Around 20 of the club’s senior colts were midway through a training session.
Mr Terry said he was aware something was wrong as the lights went out.
“We went outside and could see the flames,” Mr Terry said.
“I ran down to the Mount Burr CFS shed and passed our truck on the way to the fire.
“The fire had knocked out electricity to one part of the town and SA Power Networks crews came and put it back on.”
Mr Terry and his fellow Mount Burr volunteers remained at the scene until 1.30am yesterday.
He took the fire appliance back to the Gray Terrace property several hours later as the CFS personnel assisted the police investigators with some manual tasks.
Wattle Range CFS group officer Fred Stent said on arrival in Gray Terrace his crews found the timber-framed home well alight with flames coming close to a gas cylinder situated on the side wall.
Mr Stent was at the scene and said the fire-fighters also had to contend with a fallen live power line on the other side of the house.
He said the crews from Millicent, Mount Burr and Tantanoola contained the fire within 30 minutes whilst protecting the gas cylinder from exploding.
His firefighters also successfully worked to stop the flames from damaging two homes that were situated within close proximity to both sides of the property.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts of firefighters the home and a sedan parked in the front yard had been fully destroyed.
“As is standard practice, counselling has been offered to the crews,” Mr Stent said.
” Members of the Mount Burr brigade have spoken well of the deceased.”
CIB detectives, a crime scene examiner and specialist fire cause investigators from Adelaide have attended the scene to determine a cause of the fire.
Millicent police officer in charge Senior Sergeant First Class Rick Errington said the cause had yet to be established and there were no suspicious circumstances.
Police are preparing a report for the Coroner.
It is the second house fire at Mount Burr in the space of six days as up to $100,000 in damage was caused to a Brown Street house on August 21.
