A Sydney family-of-five has lost everything in a house fire just days before Christmas.
The blaze tore through the two-storey home on Duterreau Wy, Claymore, in Sydney’s southwest, where the mother lived with her four children and their eight German shepherd puppies.
The mother, her partner and her four children aged seven, eight, 18 and 20 were inside the Department of Housing property on Friday at 2am when the fire started.
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They all escaped unharmed, including the dogs, but the same couldn’t be said for their recently purchased Christmas presents inside.
Emergency services attended, and paramedics assessed the two younger children.
A neighbour tried to put the blaze out with a garden house before firefighters arrived.
He told 7NEWS it was “impossible” for him to extinguish the fire.
“It was too big already,” he said.
Firefighters managed to contain the fire after about an hour.
“It’s unfortunate to lose your home at any time of year, but particularly before Christmas,” superintendent Adam Dewberry said.
The house was destroyed by the fire, and the mother of the family told 7NEWS they had been left homeless and without any of their possessions.
The cause of the fire currently remains unclear.
