A father and his two children have been left with nothing but the clothes on their backs after a ferocious house fire tore through their home, just hours after celebrating a family birthday.
Danny McCall’s life changed in a matter of hours on Good Friday 2026, when a fire destroyed the single-storey home he shared with his two children on Pheasant Ct in Miami, Gold Coast.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Dad and two kids lose everything in devastating house fire on the Gold Coast
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow
The fire is thought to have been sparked by an e-bike battery.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services were called about 9am, with four crews arriving to find the carport engulfed by flames.
The day before had been one of celebration. McCall had bought his son, Chase, a mountain bike for his 13th birthday and promised him a trip to Brisbane’s tracks to ride it the following morning.
The trip was underway when McCall missed a call from a neighbour.
“I got a voicemail from my neighbour. I called him back and he said, ‘Mate, your house is on fire. The police want to speak to you’,” McCall told 7NEWS.com.au.
Officers were urgently trying to determine if anyone was inside, telling him the fire was so intense crews could not safely enter.
The fire rips through the property before firefighters arrive. Credit: SuppliedDanny McCall and his children, Chase and Chloe, lost everything when a blaze tore through their Gold Coast home, with an e-bike battery believed to have sparked the fire. Credit: Supplied
“They were just really concerned whether anyone was inside or not because the fire was that intense they couldn’t get in to check,” McCall said.
“If anyone was in there, they weren’t going to be able to get out.”
He confirmed his children, Chase, 13, and Chloe, 8, were not at home but safe with him.
But by the time they returned from Brisbane, their home and everything in it was gone.
“I think probably an hour and a half, two-hour turnaround from when they found the fire started to when I would have got home, the house was completely destroyed,” McCall said.
“Everything in the house was burnt. We’ve lost everything.
“The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Oh my God, I’m not insured’.”
McCall had only recently moved into the rental home following a relationship breakdown and had not yet arranged contents insurance.
“I’m 45 years and I’ve never not had insurance,” he said.
“But for the first time in my life, just because I moved and my dad was sick, it was just an oversight — it just slipped my mind and in that tiny little window my house burns down.”
The scale of the loss was overwhelming.
“I think I was just in shock, I was shaking. I don’t think it really hit me until the following day,” he said.
“The next day I was just numb.”
Eerie pictures from inside the home lay bare the sheer force with which the blaze ripped through.
The front of the home was left scorched and partially collapsed as emergency crews worked to contain the blaze that destroyed almost everything inside. Credit: SuppliedThe family and firefighters inspect the charred remains of the Miami home after the blaze tore through. Credit: SuppliedThe kitchen and living room were gutted. Credit: SuppliedThe hallway and laundry were left blackened, with walls scorched and ceilings peeled back. Credit: Supplied
The emotional toll has been particularly heavy on his children. Chase had just celebrated his birthday, only to lose almost everything he had received.
“Everything, all his Christmas presents from a few months ago, his birthday presents, gone,” McCall said.
For Chloe, the trauma has been compounded by the fact her bedroom window was beside the carport where the fire is believed to have started.
The blaze tore through that part of the home with such intensity nothing inside could be recognised.
“It just ripped through … you couldn’t even make out anything in her bedroom. It was just ash and rubble,” McCall said.
“She’s definitely having trouble sleeping at night.”
The outcome could have been far worse had the family been home.
“If that happened at night, we would be dealing with funerals this week,” McCall said.
“There’s no way my daughter would have survived. It was right in front of her window.”
McCall said anything inside the home not incinerated in the flames had been ruined by smoke and firefighting efforts.
“Everything that the fire didn’t destroy the smoke and the foam did,” he said.
“I tried to salvage a few things but it just all smelt too bad from the chemicals, so it had to be thrown out.
“I literally escaped with the clothes on my back.”
Chloe is struggling to sleep after the blaze tore through her room. Credit: SuppliedThe blaze is believed to have started in the carport. Credit: Supplied
The heat of the blaze was so extreme even metal components were left unrecognisable.
“I had a motorbike in there as well. The steel wheels were melted. There’s absolutely nothing left of anything,” he said.
The fire is believed to have started in the carport area, where a near-new e-bike had been stored.
McCall said the bike had not been charging at the time.
“It wasn’t even plugged in. It wasn’t on charge. It was just sitting there,” he said.
“I spent the money and I bought from a reputable brand and it had only done about 4km.”
Due to the intensity of the fire, investigators have not yet been able to definitively confirm the point of its origin.
“They said these e-bikes go off but they can’t say that it was the e-bike because they can’t determine where the fire was, because everything’s destroyed,” McCall said.
“I’ve honestly never seen anything like that.”
However, he said neighbour accounts aligned with the bike being the likely cause.
“Where the neighbour said it started was exactly where the e-bike was parked,” he said.
The financial impact has been devastating, with McCall estimating losses of about $220,000 — all uninsured.
Among the items destroyed was a $65,000 hyperbaric chamber he had recently purchased to help his father, who had been unwell.
Just days before the fire, his father had been diagnosed with stage four cancer and given only months to live.
“It’s been a year of it already,” McCall said.
The construction worker said he also lost about $25,000 worth of tools and materials, along with bikes, equipment and personal belongings.
Despite the financial toll, it is the sentimental losses that have proven hardest to process.
“There was so much sentimental stuff in there that my father had passed down from his grandfather, memories from my children growing up — just everything,” he said.
He described how thoughts of small, seemingly insignificant items he has lost continue to come to him in waves.
“One little, tiny thing I probably haven’t even looked at for how long, and then I think of that and I’m like, ‘That’s gone too’,” he said.
Among those items was a wooden box containing his grandfather’s ashes.
“I was sitting there and I was like, ‘My granddad’s ashes, they’re gone’,” he said.
Danny McCall with his daughter Chloe (left) and his son Chase (right), who had just celebrated his 13th birthday hours before the fire. Credit: SuppliedDebris, ash and structural damage showing how completely the blaze tore through the property. Credit: Supplied
For Chase, the loss of his trophies has been particularly difficult.
“That was the first thing he said, ‘Oh my trophies dad’,” McCall said.
The family has since taken refuge with relatives on the Gold Coast, where McCall is trying to work out how to rebuild their lives.
“I just went straight to my mum’s house and tried to regroup and work out what my next step was,” he said.
His focus now is on creating some sense of normality for his children as quickly as possible.
“Once I get a roof over my head, I just want to make it a home again,” he said.
“I want the kids to come home to their bedrooms made up and just make it feel like a new beginning instead of mourning what we had.”
The devastation has been softened by the response of the local community, with neighbours surrounding the family with support in the immediate aftermath.
“They’ve just been fantastic. They all came out and rallied around me,” McCall said.
While firefighters were still at the scene, one neighbour handed him money wrapped in a note reading “buy yourself a beer”, while a close friend has since launched a fundraiser to help get the McCalls back on their feet.
“Danny is the bloke who always shows up for others, the one who gives without ever asking for anything in return. Right now, he needs us,” organiser Peter Heathcote wrote.
“Chase and Chloe have lost everything, their home, their belongings, their memories. Let’s help give them a fresh start.”
Despite the scale of the loss, McCall keeps returning to one thought: his children are alive.
“That’s all I can be grateful for.”
Terrifying ordeal after boat sinks near popular island
2 min read
Unpopular opinion: Camping is just discomfort with good PR
7 min read
