Person found dead after fatal townhouse fire in Sydney's north west

A person has died following a house fire that started at the front of a unit in Sydney's north west.

Emergency services responded to reports of a fire at a townhouse on Eric Street in Eastwood at about 9.30am.

Reports say that the fire started at the front of a unit before two tradies at a construction site next door noticed the smoke and rushed in to help.

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"Black smoke everywhere, it was just crackling, popping, windows shattering," one of the tradies said.

"Sounded like the roof collapsed."

'If we knew someone was inside, we would have tried to get in, but even then, the fire was raging by the time we got to it"

Videos from other neighbours who escaped from other units showed the thick smoke engulfing the neighbourhood.

Firefighters arrived five minutes after being alerted and entered the building, finding the body of a person inside.

"There's a lot of hoarding behaviours in the home," a firefighter said.

"A lot of fuel loading, so our firefighters are working quite extensively in there to sort of clear all that fuel and to fully extinguish that fire."

The person located inside is yet to be identified.

A crime scene has been established as authorities continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the fire, however, it does not appear to be suspicious.

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