A "tall as a tree" scrub fire got within metres of setting a Fairy Springs property ablaze.
Barnard Rd resident Jeremy Malcolm noticed the scrub fire, several metres high, burning on the railway tracks behind a neighbour's property about 5pm yesterday.
"I noticed the smell of smoke first and just thought it was someone burning rubbish, but then I saw it, it was huge, as tall as a tree," he said.
Mr Malcolm then rang the Fire Service before rushing to tell his neighbour about the blaze behind her property.
That neighbour, Miriana O'Brien, said she had no idea about the fire until Mr Malcolm told her it was raging.