Three close friends were sound asleep when an explosion went off and later destroyed the unit they had been living in above a Rozelle shop on Thursday morning.
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Todd Fisher and Corey Cameron managed to jump from their first storey unit and stumbled to safety.
Their mate Chris Noble never made it out.
Police have confirmed the 27-year-old's body was pulled from the rubble on Darling Street late on Thursday night.
A Rozelle convenience store, mobile phone shop and the units above were obliterated by an explosion and subsequent fire that gutted the building.
On Friday police confirmed they had found two more bodies. They are yet to confirm whether they are the bodies of Bianka O'Brien, 31, and her son Jude, who are believed to have been sleeping in one of the units.
Pakistani convenience store owner, Adeel Khan, remained in the intensive care unit at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after he was found trapped underneath a fridge and other rubble.
Mr Noble and Mr Fisher are country boys who went to high school together in the small town of Canowindra.
Many residents have said the news has crushed the close-knit Noble family, who are well known and loved in the community,
Mr Noble's sister, Kate Noble has paid a touching tribute to her brother, who grew up in a tight-knit family with brother Michael, mother Liz and father Ross.
"Forever together. You are everything," she wrote underneath a family photo that which was shared on Facebook on Friday morning.
The talented football player had just returned from an overseas holiday a week before the tragic explosion which claimed his life.
Mr Noble, a refrigeration mechanic, often travelled from Sydney to play for the Canowindra Pythons.
Close family friend and coach Graham Rice said he was struggling to cope with the news.
"I'm in shock, we are devastated. I've coached him since he was 11," Mr Rice told Fairfax Media.
"He was a great kid, very talented sportsman and all his mates and peers just loved him," he said.
"He actually came home when he was working out in the country and he played three games this year for the Pythons. [He] put an air conditioner in our clubhouse and didn't charge us any labour so that's the type of kid he was."
Mr Rice said Mr Noble had moved to Sydney when he was about 18 to do his apprenticeship, came from a close family and often returned home to visit.
He played junior representative football for West Tigers and represented the Australian Institute of Sport in rugby league matches against England and France.
Life long Canowindra Pythons member and assistant coach Mark Brown has known Mr Noble since he was about 12 and said the club was devastated by the news.
"He was a very giving man, he played rugby with us, he'd come down from Sydney and play footy with us," Mr Brown said.
"He was a bloke that had it all, a lovely family, a family dedicated to our community," he said.
On Friday lunchtime, hopes were fading that anyone would be found alive among the rubble of the destroyed premises on Darling Street.
Police are treating the fire as suspicious.
The investigation is being led by the NSW Police's arson unit which is attached to the property crime squad.
Homicide detectives are also helping to investigate a number of leads.
