Volunteer firefighter is killed and two others injured when their truck rolls – raising the bushfire crisis death toll to 10
- One volunteer firefighter is dead and two other members of the crew injured
- Their truck rolled near Albury on Monday after they were caught in extreme wind
- The two injured members of the crew suffered burns in the incident
One volunteer firefighter has been killed and two other members of the crew injured after their truck rolled on Monday.
The volunteer was travelling through Jingelling after working on the Green Valley fire, about 70km east of Albury on the border of NSW and Victoria, when the truck rolled after they were caught in extreme winds.
Two other members of the crew, which are believed to be local to the area, suffered burns in the incident.
The volunteer has become the 10th victim of Australia’s horror bushfire season.
A Fire and Rescue personal watches a bushfire as it burns near homes on the outskirts of the town of Bilpin on December 19
Two other firefighters died on December 19 after a tree fell on their truck while they were travelling through Buxton, south of Sydney.
Andrew O’Dwyer, 36, and Geoffrey Keaton, 32, were later named as the volunteers involved in the tragic accident the following day.
Both men were young fathers and had volunteered with the Horsley Park Rural Fire Service brigade for more than a decade.
Mr Keaton has a young 19-month-old son Harvey, and Mr O’Dwyer has a 19-month-old daughter Charlotte, and two young sons.
The RFS on Monday afternoon confirmed a firefighter died battling blazes after the truck rolled
In addition to the lives lost, more than 1,000 properties have been destroyed and thousands more animals who once called the bushland home.
Authorities have been warning of devastating conditions on Monday – and were expecting the fire front to be unpredictable as weather and wind conditions worsened.
With 10 fires still burning at an emergency warning level in Victoria and another four in NSW, members of the public have been urged to stay on high alert.
A dangerous wind change is predicted to sweep through Victorian fire grounds at about midnight on Monday.
Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said it was a ‘high-risk day’ in Victoria and those still in left Lakes Entrance, in East Gippsland, may now be stuck there.
‘We’ve just – we recently looked at the columns, and they’re generating their own weather,’ Mr Crisp said.
‘There’s lightning coming out of these columns. It is unpredictable, it’s dangerous out there, and people need to stay tuned to their local conditions and stay across that good information so they can make good decisions.
More to come.
Fires in Victoria and NSW have soared to unprecedented levels in the horror bushfire season