Fire gutted this Upwey home last Wednesday morning. Fire fighters contained the blaze within half an hour. 53595
By Casey Neill
AN UPWEY man smashed his way into a burning home to drag his uncle to safety.
But despite the man’s efforts he was unable to save the family’s three dogs who died in the inferno.
Fire broke out in the single-storey weatherboard house in Forest Park Road about 2.20am last Wednesday, 15 September.
CFA crews controlled the blaze within half an hour, but the home was destroyed.
A 39-year-old man, who did not want to be named, told the Mail he woke to the sound of breaking glass in his home at the rear of the property.
“Opening my eyes, I saw a firey glow so I ran to the front door, meeting my uncle who ran out of his bedroom,” he said.
“I told him to get them out of the house – my aunty Dott, my mum, and my uncle Shane.”
The flames had trapped Shane inside.
“So I smashed three windows, but no luck,” he said.
“Then, the fourth putting my hand inside I grabbed his, pulling him out where he took a couple of steps and collapsed.”
The man returned inside to rescue the family’s dogs.
“But I could not breathe inside the house so Toby, Squirt and Jack died,” he said.
Advanced life support paramedics arrived at the scene shortly before 3am and administered oxygen to treat smoke inhalation. No one was taken to hospital.
Resident Linda Bailey was still in shock when she spoke on Melbourne radio later that morning. “I bolted out of bed. I got to the hallway and the whole lounge room was up in smoke, flames everywhere and we couldn’t even find the front door,” she said.
“I’m still sitting in an old pair of pyjamas and my son’s bikie boots.”
Ms Bailey’s two Jack Russell dogs were among three treasured pets who died in the blaze.
“Usually, they sleep on a rug on top of my bed,” she said. “I think they’ve panicked and just haven’t been able to get out.”
“I spoke to the fireman and he said they’ve probably had smoke inhalation and probably wouldn’t have felt anything.”
She thanked the fire crews who fought the flames. “They were fantastic.”
Police say the cause of the blaze is unknown but that it is not suspicious.
