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<\/p>\nTwo elderly people have died in separate house fires overnight in Sydney and on the New South Wales South Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The blazes at Villawood in Western Sydney and Greenwell Point, east of Nowra, both started within hours of each other last night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thirteen people have now died in structure fires across the state this winter.<\/p>\n
Fire and Rescue NSW commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said the two deaths would be felt by firefighters across the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We really feel the impact of these tragedies; it’s something our firefighters experience firsthand,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We extend our condolences to those families, because we have a good understanding of the heartache that they’re experiencing.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cooking fire starts fatal blaze<\/p>\n
At 6pm firefighters were called to a house fire at Tuncoee Road in Villawood. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Crews managed to rescue a woman aged in her 50s.<\/p>\n
A second woman aged in her 70s died a short time later at Liverpool Hospital while receiving treatment for smoke inhalation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jeremy Fewtrell says there has been a concerning rise in fire fatalities this winter.\u00a0 (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)<\/p>\n
Mr Fewtrell said investigators worked through the night to determine the cause of the blaze.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We believe that fire was related to a cooking fire,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Our fire investigators inspected the property and did not locate a working smoke alarm in the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This really underscores the importance of having a working smoke alarm.”<\/p>\n
A separate blaze started inside a mobile home at a tourist park in Greenwell Point, east of Nowra, about 10pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After extinguishing the flames, firefighters found the body of an elderly man inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another man was taken to hospital in a serious condition with serious burns and smoke inhalation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The operations officer for Shoalhaven Rural Fire Service, Anthony Ciccaldo, said crews faced dynamic risks at the scene, including gas bottles and neighbouring mobile homes just metres away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Crews were quickly able to get on top of it as soon as they arrived, and knock [the fire] down to reduce any further extension to neighbouring properties,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rise in fatal winter fires<\/p>\n
The deaths mark a sharp rise in fatal fires across the state this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During winter last year, there were more than 1,000 house fires resulting in nine fatalities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This season, 13 people have died as 856 house fires have been recorded across NSW during the colder months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Fewtrell said while there have been fewer fires this winter, the rise in fatalities was concerning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Very sadly this year we’re now seeing a significant increase in the number of fire deaths,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The fundamental aspects of having working smoke alarms are more critical than ever.”<\/p>\n
The commissioner said elderly people were often over-represented in fire fatality data, due to mobility issues that made escaping a house fire difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We know that fire safety for elder residents is a really important thing,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“[Residents can] ring the fire station and ask for a safety visit for their parents or their grandparents or their elderly neighbours.<\/p>\n
“We’ll talk to the residents about fire safety and be able to provide very customised and specific advice for their individual circumstances … and install smoke alarms free of charge.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two elderly people have died in separate house fires overnight in Sydney and on the New South Wales…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14827,53336,844,10153,97256,97255,50288,247,97254],"class_list":["post-70792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-caravan-park","tag-fatal-house-fire","tag-fire","tag-fire-and-rescue-nsw","tag-greenwell-point","tag-jeremy-fewtrell","tag-rural-fire-service","tag-sydney","tag-villawood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}