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TWO women have been taken to Warrnambool Base Hospital after suffering smoke inhalation in a house fire. Warrnambool Fire Brigade senior station officer David Ferguson said authorities were called to the fire at a house in Campbell Street, Port Fairy at 12.50pm. "Two ladies were in the house, reportedly one was asleep, woke up saw the fire, attempted to deal with it but couldn't so evacuated the property and called the fire brigade," he said. "One of the ladies suffered some minor burns to her hands and both had minor smoke inhalation. They have been taken to Warrnambool Base Hospital for further assessment and should be ok." He said when brigades arrived they found the fire at the house in the back at the kitchen. "Firefighters have laid out hoses and attacked the fire," he said. "At this stage it looks like the fire has generally been contained to the rear of the first property. "There is some extension into the roof of the second property." In an unrelated incident at the fire scene a Port Fairy CFA appliance also caught fire. "In the process of the fire fight the first truck - which is the Port Fairy pumper - has suffered some sort of mechanical fault and unfortunately caught fire as well," Mr Ferguson said. "Brigade members were then confronted with a truck on fire and a house on fire, which is very confronting. With the assistance of some other volunteers who had responded they were able to extinguish the fire in the pumper and stop that from burning more than what it had and continue to fight the house fire." He said the majority of the house blaze was brought under control within the first 25 minutes. "Firefighters had difficulty accessing some of the roof structure," he said. "Because it's a very old building fire gets in and out where the timbers are and where the dust gathers." He said tin was removed off the roof to extinguish small pockets of fire. "I don't believe it's a suspicious fire," he said. "We have arranged with police for a fire investigator to attend." He said the fire investigator would look at the cause of the pumper blaze and the house fire. "CFA have our own mechanical officers who will look at it and take photos and do an assessment on what has happened," he said. "Obviously CFA will have up to 40 of those types of trucks, so I would suggest that whatever they find to be the issue will be immediately inspected on those other vehicles to ensure the same fault is not going to happen with those." Wallie Cron captured video of the truck on fire. He said the fire may have started in a chimney and the blaze was affecting two houses. Mr Cron said he heard a loud hiss before the fire truck erupted into flames. He praised the fast actions of the CFA crew who got the blaze under control quickly, especially given the close proximity to a childcare centre. Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.

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