Girl, 5, dies in NSW house fire

A little girl's screams pierced the frantic scene surrounding a fatal house fire in
the NSW Hunter region, a neighbour says.
A five-year-old girl died in the fire that destroyed her family's Woodberry home,
near Maitland.
She was staying there with her grandmother and another child, aged seven, when the
fire started about 10am (AEST) on Saturday.
The five-year-old became trapped in the blazing house.
Her grandmother managed to escape with the other child and was soon telling
firefighters her granddaughter was missing.
Crews worked for more than an hour to bring the flames under control before reaching
the girl's body inside the devastation.
Neighbour Kim Dunster told the Nine Network said she heard screams coming from the
house.
"All I could see was smoke and all I could hear was a little girl screaming," she said.
"It was just black."
Another neighbour, Rhianon Ott, described high flames, saying she saw the girl's
family frantically searching for the little girl.
"I could see the father running around the pool area trying to find ... his
daughter," she also told Nine.
NSW Police Inspector Tony Joice told reporters the incident was a tragedy.
"(It) takes its toll on the community and investigators alike," he said.
NSW Fire Brigades (NSWFB) said investigators were still trying to determine a cause
late on Saturday.
NSWFB Inspector Phil Lindsay told AAP the house was totally destroyed.