Two neighbours have broken down a door and smashed through a window in a brave but vain attempt to save a man who died in a unit blaze in Melbourne's north.
Murray Calgaret said he Dean Kickett were alerted to the fire by a woman screaming hysterically outside the Preston home.
"The woman was saying 'there's a man in there'. She was saying 'help, somebody help, my house is on fire'," Mr Calgaret told AAP.
The two men then tried to enter the unit by breaking down the door and smashing a window with a chair, but were unable to get far because of the intense heat and smoke.
"We got as far as four steps into the house," he told AAP.
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"I couldn't see, other than that it was pure black smoke.. Once I opened the door, it actually went whoosh."
"It was shocking. I am so disturbed. I could have saved somebody's life."
The Melbourne Fire Brigade (MFB) is investigating what caused the fire that engulfed the public housing unit in Tyler Street, with an arson chemist to examine the scene.
Mr Calgaret says the distressed woman had mentioned both a gas cylinder and a petrol can.
MFB senior Station officer Luke Klein said the fire began just after 3pm on Friday, and was contained within 10 minutes by about 20 firefighters.
He says Department of Health and Human Services and MFB are currently working to relocate the occupants from neighbouring units.
