Two bodies found in Hawkesbury region home
Updated ,first published
Two bodies were found in a Hawkesbury house that was devastated by a raging fire on Monday morning, hours after five people were taken to hospital with blaze injuries.
Two people were reported missing after they were unable to escape the fire that engulfed the two-story brick home on Lt. Bowen Drive in Bowen Mountain at 2:10 a.m. Monday morning.
Emergency response teams found two bodies believed to belong to unidentified people during the searches that started after the fire was taken under control at 4 am.
A man and four children escaped from the house before it collapsed and were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and burns. Police conducted a crime scene investigation at the home and are trying to officially identify the bodies.
More than 50 firefighters faced a “very challenging situation” when they arrived to find flames engulfing the home. The fire lasted almost two hours and the roof and other interior structures collapsed. An initial assessment suggested the walls could also collapse, causing emergency responders to retreat from the area to protect themselves.
NSW Rural Fire Commissioner Trent Curtin said parts of the house were still smoldering at 8am and drones and dogs would be deployed to assist with rescue efforts.
Lt. Bowen Drive is a long residential street with homes on the west side directly bordering the Blue Mountains.
RFS Inspector Jonathon Hill, one of the first firefighters on the scene, said the decision to withdraw from the home was “incredibly difficult”. “Words really can’t describe” the difficulty of the morning, he said.
“This is a situation you can’t really understand until you’re in it,” Hill said. “We want to help the community, we do the best we can. And again, there’s a human side to it that you can’t always explain.”
There was no damage to the surrounding houses in the fire.
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Daniel Lo Surdo is a breaking news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He previously ran The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s national news live blog.Connect via email.
