Graham Cameron was a larrikin who loved a few beers, the song Gangsta's Paradise and was best mates with his dog Izzy.
The 55-year-old died in the early hours of Monday when his one-bedroom housing commission flat caught fire at Stockton.
Investigators spent most of the day securing the scene and looking into what might have caused the inferno that claimed Mr Cameron's life, but exactly what sparked the fire remains a mystery.
Emergency crews were called to a block of five flats on Fullerton Street about 5am, where they found one unit well alight. Firefighters rescued a woman from one of the neighbouring units before they extinguished the fire - they then found Mr Cameron's body inside the gutted home.
Mr Cameron's younger sister Bernice Hughes told the Newcastle Herald her brother was "such a larrikin".
She said he had grown up in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, enjoyed playing rugby league and swimming competitively as a child and had moved to Stockton about five years ago.
Ms Hughes said Mr Cameron was in remission from cancer and lived alone - he had a daughter who had Down syndrome who died a few years ago - and his dog Izzy was his nearly constant companion.
Mr Cameron could often be seen around Stockton walking or riding his pushbike with Izzy, or taking her for a swim.
The 55-year-old enjoyed having a few beers at Stockton's watering holes, Ms Hughes said, and he was vocal about his love for the 90s Coolio hit Gangsta's Paradise - he had even recently joked with his sister about wanting it played at his funeral.
"I'm in shock, I just keep expecting him to walk up the street," Ms Hughes said, while holding Izzy, on Monday.
"He was a happy man, he wouldn't hurt anyone. He kept to himself. He spent most of his time with Izzy and us.
"[He was a] quiet, loving, caring person. I loved him dearly."
Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Greg Symonds said Mr Cameron's home was "almost totally destroyed" when firefighters arrived at the scene.
"It was a wind-driven fire with very strong wind gusts," he said.
"The fire had vented so it wasn't oxygen-controlled - it would have been a very intense fire, probably up around 1000 degrees. There's a lot of fire damage inside. We'll need to dig down to determine the cause, if we are able to do that."
The tragedy comes after a family made a lucky escape, uninjured, when a two storey home went up in flames on Sandgate Road at Shortland in the early hours of Sunday.
