THE SCENE: Tress Street neighbours look on in disbelief as the fire crews work.
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A STOVE lighter and candles are being blamed for a fire which tore through a Mount Pleasant home last night, causing $30,000 damage.
One of the Tress Street home's bedrooms went up in flames about 5pm yesterday, causing extensive damage to the home and almost engulfing another.
CFA District 15 acting operations office Anthony Pearce told
"At this stage we're putting it down to a young child playing with a stove lighter and a candle," he said.
"It's one of those unfortunate things."
Mr Pearce said a working smoke alarm alerted the four-year-old child's mother, who then evacuated the property.
Nobody was injured as a result of the fire.
"It just goes to show that having working smoke detectors saves lives."
Fire crews determined late last night that the blaze was not suspicious.
Next door neighbour Laurie Jones said he heard an "almighty bang" and ran outside to see flames engulfing the house, just metres from his own home.
With a garden hose he managed to prevent his house catching fire, although it too received external damage in the blaze.
"We were very lucky to get away with it," he said.
His wife Judy said the couple were about to leave the house before the fire erupted.
Ballarat City Fire Station senior station officer Nick Callan estimated the damage bill would total about $30,000.
"When we arrived the bedroom was fully involved," he said.
"The neighbour did a good job of saving his own home with the garden hose but the other house suffered a fair bit of damage."
Fire crews remained on the scene for about two hours as police blocked off the road.
Two Ballarat Fire Brigade units and one Ballarat City Fire Brigade unit attended the blaze.