Two firefighters killed battling Victorian blaze

Updated

Flags in Victoria are flying at half-mast today as a mark of respect for two firefighters killed while fighting the Harrietville bushfires in the state's north-east.

The pair were working on the Harrietville blaze yesterday when a tree fell on their vehicle in the remote Buckland Valley.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment workers have been identified as a 19-year-old woman from Tallandoon and a 29-year-old man from Corryong.

Emergency crews, initially unable to get to the area because of the extreme conditions and difficult terrain, eventually reached the scene shortly after 8:00pm (AEDT).

The Australian Workers Union (AWU) says the deaths are a shattering loss for their families, their workmates, the union and all Victorians.

"These DSE firefighters work in the most horrific conditions imaginable, away from the big centres, out in the bush, and with very little recognition for their heroic contribution to this state," AWU Victorian secretary Cesar Melhem said.

"They have died heroes, which will be small comfort to those that grieve them."

Mr Melhem says their colleagues are receiving support.

"These firefighters are a very close group of people, they do depend on each other so I would say at this point in time they would be in a state of shock losing their comrades," he said.

"We have some of our officials on the scene as well to provide support to these firefighters and hopefully they'll be able to pull through."

David Wortmann, deputy mayor of Towong shire in north-eastern Victoria, said his son was in the vehicle behind the one in which the two firefighters were killed.

He says his son went to school with the teenage woman.

"My 19-year-old son was in the crew, I picked him up at last night at midnight," he said.

"He's very upset. I didn't know really what to say to him. I just felt so sorry for him and his crew to have to witness and experience such a tragedy.

"I knew the girl. She comes from an outstanding family. It's just tragic.

"My son, he's going to uni and this girl, she was going to uni and it was a great opportunity, terrific training, they work with experienced firefighters and they're saving up money to go to uni and yeah, it's just devastating."

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has offered his condolences to the families of those killed.

"The tragic loss of these two firefighters will affect all those who have been fighting these fires and protecting Victorian communities," he said in a statement.

Another Victorian DSE firefighter died while working on bushfires in Tasmania last month.

The Harrietville fire has burned through 27,000 hectares since it was started by lightning on January 21.

Overnight rain

Meanwhile, a band of thunderstorms and rain that moved across the state late yesterday started more fires than it extinguished.

About 30 millimetres of rain fell in an isolated pocket on the Alpine South fire, south of Mount Hotham.

Swifts Creek incident controller Richard Bourke says the rain has brought backburning operations in the area to a standstill.

He says a number of fires have been reported since the storms passed through eastern Victoria.

"It made it more difficult for our firefighters to do our backburning efforts and stuff like that and so we'll have to wait till conditions improve," he said.

"Looking at the weather prognosis for the next couple of days, it also indicates that there's a potential for further showers.

"We're sending some crews to help crews from Corryong north of Benambra on a particular fire today and also we've got some air observers going up, virtually right up to where the Murray starts, there's a reported fire up there and we're going to investigate that with our air observer."

Topics: bushfire, harrietville-3741, ovens-3738, vic, australia

First posted