A relative of a woman who died in a ferocious house fire on Tuesday morning tried desperately to enter the burning building to save her, only for the stairwell to collapse before he could reach her, a witness said.
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Lynne Young, 55, was believed to be sleeping on the second storey of the house on Paringa Place in Bangor, in Sydney's south, when a fire tore through the property just after 4.30am.
Two men - one of whom is Ms Young's son, David - were able to escape from the flames, but Ms Young did not emerge.
A neighbour, Martin Bristow, said a man attempted to enter the house to save the woman but he could not reach her.
"I saw them [the men] out the front, they were pretty distressed," said Mr Bristow, who lives two doors away.
"One tried to get the woman out and had no luck, because the stairs had collapsed. He just came out covered in soot, black from head to toe. The other guy was just very distressed."
Firefighters entered the property several hours later and discovered a body.
Fire and Rescue NSW investigators are yet to determine its cause.
They are understood to be investigating whether the blaze broke out in the yard of the property, which neighbours said was crammed with junk and household items, before spreading to the house.
One neighbour said quite a few vehicles were parked on the property that were "full to the roof" with items, while the garage was "chock-a-block full of everything you could imagine".
"It was an accident waiting to happen," the neighbour said.
Mr Bristow said he was woken about 4.30am by "quite a bit of noise" and crackling sounds.
"First I thought it was gunshots, it was somebody causing a commotion. I came out and saw the fire and realised what was going on," he said.
"Normally it's a very, very quiet area, a cul-de-sac, and to my surprise the house two doors up from me was well and truly alight.
"It was too ferocious to get anywhere near it. Even the firies didn't go anywhere near it for a while. There's no way we were going to stop it.
"Sadly the woman that was in the house, they tried to get her out but couldn't."
Mr Bristow said he had only moved to the street in recent months and did not know the family.
Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman Kieran Taylor said firefighters had been attacking the fire for about five minutes on both the upstairs and downstairs levels when the roof started collapsing.
"It was very dangerous in there," he said.
"As soon as the structure loses its integrity we need to get crews outside the building for their safety."
NSW Ambulance paramedics treated two men at the scene for smoke inhalation, a NSW Police spokesman said.
with Rachel Olding
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