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Grand Designs Australia house burns

Producers have been following a build for 3 years -but disaster struck on Friday.

A house being filmed for Grand Designs Australia has tragically been burnt just 3 weeks before its owners planned to move in.

The house owned by architects Marc and Felicity Bernstein is a low budget, sustainable house built on a reclaimed junk yard next to a railway line in Melbourne’s Coburg.

Producers Fremantle and host Peter Maddison have been following the build for 3 years.

But disaster struck last Friday when a blow torch flame licked the home’s insulation, with the fire racing up the internal lining of the house. Eight fire trucks attended the site pumping over 30,000 litres of water into the structure. Despite the fire seemingly out by the end of the day, it flared up again at 2am and 6am.

Amazingly, the first call the owners made after the fire brigade was to Grand Designs. Host Peter Maddison and producer Mark Hanlin also attended the scene to witness drama they had certainly not anticipated.

But the young family, who have been living in a campervan for the last two years while they build the house, are already facing the monumental challenge head on with a new target of Christmas.

“They are obviously trying to cope with a lot at the moment but they hope they can rebuild the house,” Brooke Bayvel, Supervising Executive Producer told TV Tonight.

Grand Designs Australia celebrates 10 years since its debut this October. Its very first episode, Calignee House showcased a house that was destroyed by Black Saturday bushfires and was rebuilt exactly as it had been before the fire.

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