An elderly couple in Adelaide are lucky to be alive after their retirement unit went up in flames. Investigators say a faulty electric blanket sparked the blaze in their bedroom. In just minutes, the fire ripped through the unit at the Ridgehaven Retirement Village in the early hours of Friday morning where Barry Goodie and his wife Dot lived. “From the time I was woken up the flames had already taken hold. they were shooting out the front bedroom window,” neighbour Joop Gargosky said. Mr Goodie, whose wife has poor mobility, was running around with his garden hose in a desperate attempt to put out the flames, Mr Gargosky recalled. “The roof was starting to buckle and flames were just roaring out. The noise was quite frightening!” he said. The pair managed to get out safely before Mr Goodie went door to door to alert his neighbours. Another neighbour described the fire as a “wall of flames” as it breached the building’s roof.
