By Casey Neill
Police have said that a Noble Park North house fire which killed one elderly man and left an elderly woman in hospital was not suspicious.
Dandenong Fire Station officer in charge Paul Carrigg said firefighters dragged a man and woman from the Ascot Drive home in the early hours of Thursday 18 August.
“They made immediate entry to burning house and retrieved two victims, one from a bedroom and the other from a kitchen area,” he said.
“The firefighters provided first aid to the victims with ambulance crews.
“They were unable to save male victim.”
An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said paramedics treated a woman in her 70s for smoke inhalation and took her to Dandenong Hospital.
Mr Carrigg said the triple zero call came in at 12.17am and that four Dandenong crews and an MFB team were on-scene within five minutes.
He said the attending fire crews put in a fantastic effort and brought the fire under control within about 10 minutes.
“The majority of the fire appears to be in a bedroom area,” he said.
The Journal was on-scene when police brought a shell-shocked relative back to the house following the grim task of identifying the deceased man.
He told waiting media that he didn’t know what to say, and that he was going to visit his mother in hospital to check on her condition.
Neighbour Edgar Falzon walks his dogs past the home each day and said he regularly saw the fire victim.
He said the man was a smoker, walked with a walking frame, had bandages all over his legs, and relied on taxis and community vans to get around.
“I never spoke to him,” he said.
Only hours before the fire, on the Journal’s website Mr Carrigg had warned that a house fire was four times more likely to turn deadly if there was no working smoke alarm.
Nine people died in the more than 3200 preventable home fires that occurred across the state last year, new figures show.
Mr Carrigg said not having a working smoke alarm also increased the chances of property damage by 57 per cent and serious injury by 26 per cent.
“The most common fires involved unattended cooking, heating, electrical appliances, wiring and smoking,” he said.
More than 40 per cent of fires started in the kitchen.
A Dandenong teen suffered severe burns when he tried to move a pan of oil that caught alight on Monday 8 August.
Paramedics were called to the Langhorne Street home about 5.40am and found the victim with burns to his neck, chest, arms and legs.
He was taken to The Alfred in a serious condition.
“Most house fires are caused by someone making a mistake – a moment of carelessness, forgetfulness or neglect,” Mr Carrigg said.
“Never leave your cooking unattended. Small distractions can lead to serious injury and damage.”
He said candles, incense and oil burners should be kept away from anything that could catch fire, and should not be left unattended.
“Be careful not to overload your power boards and only use power boards with overload protection,” he said.
Mr Carrigg said clothes dryer owners should clean the lint filter after each load of washing.
Other advice included keeping clothing and curtains at least one metre away from heaters.
“Don’t deadlock yourself inside your home. If you feel you must, keep the keys in your deadlocks for an easy exit,” he said.
