By CASEY NEILL
A DEADLY Noble Park house fire and a string of other blazes have prompted a CFA warning.
Region 8 operations manager Trevor Owen last Wednesday told the Journal his crews had attended five fires in the previous 48 hours.
“In the last two weeks we’ve had 19 hours fires,” he said.
“This time of year we do experience an increase because people are inside. But it’s been unusually high even for winter.”
Mr Owen said cooking mishaps, faulty appliances and unmaintained heating systems were behind many of the fires.
“In the southern metropolitan region, I can’t recall a time where we’ve had the amount of fire fatalities and serious injuries since the start of the year,” he said.
“The figures that we’re seeing are extreme.”
Crews rescued an 82-year-old man from a home in Pike Court, Noble Park, on 11 August and resuscitated him at the scene. He later died in hospital.
A family escaped a fire in their Arresta Street, Dandenong, home in the early hours of 12 August.
That night, an elderly man and woman suffered smoke inhalation while using a garden hose to extinguish a fire in their Dandenong North home.
They’d succeeded by the time firefighters reached the Illawarra Crescent property, just before 4am.
The house was fitted with smoke detectors but they were disconnected.
“There’s no excuse these days not to have a smoke alarm,” Mr Owen said.
“They’re a cheap item. Check the smoke alarm battery on a monthly basis.
“That’s your lifeline.
“Once the smoke alarm goes off, it’s about having a plan then to get out.
“That should be rehearsed or at the very least talked about.”
Mr Owen urged people to listen out for smoke alarms in neighbouring properties.
“It’s up to them to make a conscious effort to go and check on the neighbour if they hear it for a period of time,” he said.
“If they smell smoke, call fire brigade.
“The earlier we’re notified, the earlier we can intervene.”
He said today’s furnishings were very different to those from 30 or 40 years ago.
“We used a lot of natural products, which were combustible but it would take a little while for them to get going,” he said.
“Now a lot of our materials are man-made, which is based on an oil or petroleum-based product or a chemical.
“We’re actually arriving on scene within a few minutes of the receipt of the call, but what we’re finding is that the house or the room is totally engulfed.”
