Albany woman watches her house go up in flames on the day she comes home from hospital after a heart attack

An Albany grandmother who was flown to Perth after having a heart attack lost her home in a terrifying fire on the day she returned to Albany. Veronica Yorkshire was recovering from her heart attack at home in Collingwood Heights on Friday night when she smelt smoke. A candle in the bedroom of one of her daughters had set fire to a doona just after 8pm. “I shouted out to my other daughter who was in her room,” Ms Yorkshire said. “I grabbed the doona and ran it out the front. “My daughter and I were trying to lift the mattress up and get it out because that was on fire too but it was too heavy. “We inhaled so much smoke. I was trying to get water from the laundry but the water was taking too long. “She just said, ‘Mum, leave the fire, we can’t do anything’. “She ran out the front with my grandson and I ran out the back.” Firefighters were on the scene within minutes, but the house was already going up in flames. Police blocked off Lower King Road while firefighters battled to bring the blaze under control. Paramedics attended to Ms Yorkshire, her daughter and her grandson. “The ambulance people told me to get into the ambulance and not stand too close to the fire because they didn’t want me inhaling much more smoke,” she said. The trio were taken to Albany Health Campus with symptoms of smoke inhalation. Fortunately, no one was injured. Ms Yorkshire returned to the house at the weekend, where her family would normally gather for a Mother’s Day roast dinner. She was shocked by the extent of the damage. “I can actually see all the way through my house,” she said. “The ceiling has collapsed in. “All my clothes, all my photos are gone — my sentimental things. My mother’s clothes were still there but they have all got the smell of smoke.” She had her heart attack on May 2 while she was watching the western derby on television. The Royal Flying Doctor Service flew her to Perth, where she stayed until the day of the house fire. Since then, the 56-year-old has been put up in a motel and a caravan park as emergency accommodation. She is waiting to hear back from the Department of Housing about something more permanent. “It’s my first house fire and it’s scary. The flames took hold of the house in a couple of seconds — not minutes, seconds,” Ms Yorkshire said. “It was too scary to even think of anything, the adrenaline was just pumping.”