In just five minutes, a Perth family of five lost everything but the clothes on their back in a destructive blaze just weeks before Christmas.
But Lee Hourne says the worst part of their ordeal was the malicious rumours spread about the family in the aftermath.
Late one Sunday night last December, Lee, wife Hayley and their three young children were asleep in their Ravenswood home when noises from the garage awoke the Perth father.
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"I heard a few noises from in the garage, and I thought it was her getting home, so didn't really rush to it - wasn't really loud or nothing," Lee said.
"And I finally got up, opened up the garage door and just met with a wall, a wall of flames."
Lee tried to fight the fire with his three-year-old son by his side.
But seconds later, his toddler disappeared inside the plume of smoke.
"The oldest had actually woken up because (of) the noise, because I was screaming out for help," Lee said.
"My middle boy, he was still asleep, I was feeling around on his bed, trying to feel him, because couldn't see and I couldn't feel nothing.
"I finally found a leg, and I just grabbed that, dragged him out of bed, went back in for the youngest because he was still in there running around."
By that stage, the roof of the family's Ravenswood home was beginning to collapse on them, and Lee was still desperately trying to find his youngest son.
"I heard the eldest yell out from the door - they found him," Lee said.
With the family all escaping the ferocious blaze, Lee, along with two first responders, were hospitalised with smoke inhalation.
In a cruel and devastating twist, Lee and Hayley had cancelled their insurance just a few months before.
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"I had hurt myself at work, severed all of the ligaments and tendons in my ankle, and had surgeries and stuff like that," Lee said.
"Fell on hard times, so basically the mortgage got missed, the insurances got missed for a couple (payments) - then bang, fire."
With their home now uninhabitable, their cars destroyed and belongings unsalvageable, Hayley's brother Aiden and his partner Caitlin set up a GoFundMe for the family to help them get back on their feet.
But the kindness of strangers quickly turned to cruelty as rumours spread through their community that a hydroponic drug set-up had been found inside the home.
"It's been really tough, that's probably been worse than our house burning down, having people say that about us," Hayley said.
Police did find what looked like a hydroponic tent at the home but after a thorough investigation from fire crews and Mandurah police, no criminal activity was found anywhere in the house.
Senior fire analyst Mark Hayes, who carried out the investigation, said he could "categorically state" it was not a hydroponic set-up.
Instead, Hayley claims she had been using the tent to spray tan.
"I was spray tanning, it was just sitting there," she said.
Hayes found lithium-ion batteries were the cause of the blaze, which are becoming increasingly common as appliances age.
"We're getting a lithium-ion battery fire probably four out of seven days," Hayes said.
"We don't know when, how, why a battery is going to catch fire, they just do."
A common item found in almost every home across the country, Hayes said Aussies can reduce the risk of lithium battery fires by keeping them in fire-safe containers.
"When my batteries aren't in use - and I'm talking about my tool batteries - I put them in a tool box," he said.
"So if they do happen to fly off, then at least that's contained in a metal container."
If a fire does start, don't try to put it out yourself.
"Exit the property and call triple zero... the fumes are toxic and the damage it would do to you is irreparable," Hayes said.
