'Playing with fire': Lucky escape for family who fled inferno

THE cause of a fire that ripped through and gutted a house on Callide Crescent at Barney Point on Monday has been determined by police.

The fire, which Gladstone firefighters said started in the back bedroom of a rental house, was believed to have been started by a young child.

Last month there was a separate house fire at Clinton, which was started by a young child and destroyed half the house.

Although a woman and her two children managed to escape the inferno unscathed, it's understood most of the possessions inside the house went up in smoke.

Gladstone's acting head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Lindsay, said the fire had fully engulfed the house.

"There was a family inside and at the time police spoke to a number of children as well as the adult at the premises," Det Snr Sgt Lindsay said.

"It was ascertained that a young child may have been experimenting or playing with fire, a candle, which resulted in the curtains being engulfed and all of a sudden the house."