She also suffered stab wounds in the attack. Inspector Terry Kane said it appeared the man made his way to the church 100 metres away from the service station where he remained until the siege ended about two-and-a-half hours later. He defended the time police took to end the dramatic stand-off. “Our aim is to resolve these things as peacefully as possible, and we have got that result,” Inspector Kane said.



Witnesses said the woman’s partner allegedly stopped bystanders from extinguishing the flames, telling them to ‘‘let her burn’’. A bystander, Darren, drove his Jeep at the man in a desperate bid to get him away from the woman, who was rolling around on the ground in flames. Darren told Radio 3AW the man had a knife or screwdriver and was waving it about erratically, preventing onlookers from rescuing the woman.

‘‘The first thing I thought of was, maybe if I used the car, I might be able to knock him over or scare him off,’’ he said. ‘‘The flames were getting big and it was starting to get pretty black and by the time I headed into the petrol station he was hard to see, but I obviously scared him a bit and he ran off. ‘‘By the time I parked the car a few guys had managed to get in there with a towel and get actually the towel onto the lady and get her out to safety. ‘‘It was by then that the car was pretty much starting to bang and pop and it pretty much went up in flames.’’ Darren said even though he knew the petrol bowser might explode, he wanted to help the injured woman.

‘‘(It’s) always in your mind, but there’s somebody burning on the ground. The fact that there was a few people there that were willing to do something, you just want to do what you can to save that person.’’ Truck driver Beau Flemming said he was driving down the Mountain Highway when he heard an explosion and saw the car alight. He said bystanders grabbed fire extinguishers and tried to help the woman, who was completely engulfed in flames, however the man prevented anyone from approaching her. "The male was running around waving knives and everyone was trying to help the female and it went pear-shaped real quick," he told Radio 3AW. "[She was] engulfed, completely. All her hair, everything. There was not one bit of white skin left."

He said a bystander jumped in his Hummer and drove at the man in a bid to "run him over so we could have access to her". "He was waving knives around at us, a very scary situation for everyone," Mr Flemming said. "[He was ] telling her to burn, yeah, just not a very pleasant sight. "The car was completely engulfed, she was completely engulfed, there was just black smoke pouring out from underneath the servo. We were just trying to get her away because we didn’t know if they had shut the valves off to the pumps or anything." Another witness, Derek McLaughlin, said he heard an explosion about 8.30am and made his way to the service station from his nearby office.

He said he saw the woman rolling around on the ground trying to extinguish herself next to a 90s-model Toyota Camry. ‘‘The car was a fireball,’’ he said. ‘‘The interior was completely on fire. The flames were hitting the canopy and going above the roof. ‘‘She was screaming. The other guy was carrying on saying ‘‘F**k you, let her burn. ‘‘There were people in the carpark trying to help. He was telling them to f**k off.’’

Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman Susannah Wilson said the woman suffered burns to nearly 100 per cent of her body. The woman was conscious when paramedics arrived and was flown to The Alfred hospital in a critical condition. Loading Victoria Police has offered to organise counselling for anyone who witnessed today’s fire, while homicide squad detectives have appealed for anyone with footage of the incident to come forward. Witnesses and affected members of the public should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.





