NBA ... Longley with Michael Jordan in the 1990s / AFP
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- Luc Longley's $2m property destroyed in fire
- Family and children's friends escaped blaze
FORMER basketball star Luc Longley wept as he told today of his family's escape from a fire that destroyed their $2 million home in Fremantle, south of Perth.
The former Chicago Bulls player managed to get his partner, his two children and their two friends out of the family home in Montreal Street before it went up in flames about 3am (WST) today.
The converted industrial premises was well alight by the time fire crews arrived but all five occupants escaped without injury.
"I was asleep and heard a bang, an explosion, and it was already on fire and got the kids out," he told Nine News at the scene.
Crews were able to stop the fire from spreading to an adjacent garage which housed up to five of Longley's vehicles, but the home was left gutted.
Ironically, the family moved a number of boxes into the garage yesterday which contained some items from his basketball career.
He is believed to have lost much of the sporting memorabilia he won during his career in Australian and US basketball leagues.
It is unknown whether the fire destroyed the three championship rings he won while playing in the US National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Chicago Bulls during the 1990s, a spokesman for the Fire and Emergency Services Association (FESA) said.
Investigators have yet to determine a cause of the fire but are not treating it as suspicious.
At a separate blaze at about 9pm yesterday, a 49-year-old woman and her two sons, aged 8 and 12, were killed and burned beyond immediate recognition when their house at Karrinyup, in Perth's northern suburbs, was destroyed by fire.
The premises had no electrical power, raising questions about whether candles were being used for lighting.
It is not known if the house had a gas connection and if it was supplying gas to any indoor appliances.
