Media identity’s family flees blaze at inner-Brisbane home

Fire has ripped through the two-storey Bulimba house that is home to Brisbane media identity Mike Goldman and his family.

Firefighters arrived shortly after 4am on Friday to the Wordsworth Street property to flames and a large amount of smoke. They were quickly able to contain the fire to the front of the house.

Goldman told Today reporter Ha-Teya Gripske his family was woken by smoke alarms, which he had initially thought was a low battery warning.

“I thought I had to replace the battery, [it’s] not the battery – turns out the front of the house is on fire,” Goldman said.

The longtime TV and radio host and voiceover artist said he had gathered his family, and had “singed his hair” while doing so.

Early investigations indicated a fuse box fault near his one-year-old son’s bedroom, where Goldman said the baby was fortunately not sleeping.

“Luckily last night he was asleep in our bed because he was a little bit under the weather... but if he was in there, smoke inhalation. Jeez, I hate to think what might have happened,” Goldman said.

“The dog was still inside, and I ran back in, couldn’t find the dog, everyone’s screaming at me to get out.

“It was one of the scariest 10 minutes, 15 minutes, ever because I had to wait for the fire brigade to get here and go and get him.”

The fire department said the blaze was under control about 6.15am, with two crews remaining on-scene dampening down shortly before 8am as fire investigators arrived.

Paramedics reported no patients and roads remained open near the home.

Goldman is best known for his voiceover work for Australia’s first iteration of Big Brother, which ran from 2001 to 2008, and hosted several spin-off programs, including Big Brother Up Late from 2003, Friday Night Games from 2006, and Download in 2007 and 2008.

He has also made appearances in a number of Australian mainstay shows, including Home and Away, and has voiced commercials, video games, and radio shows on Triple M, and Sydney’s 2SM.

More recently, Goldman has hosted podcast On the Mike, which features interviews from “interesting characters, celebrities, politicians, doctors, entrepreneurs, geniuses, writers, entertainers, and many more”.

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