By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
TWO well-intentioned neighbours were hospitalised after trying to rescue an 87-year-old Endeavour Hills woman whose house was engulfed in flames last Wednesday.
Leon and Sandra Jones said their adult sons broke into the rear of the next-door home in Redhill Court about 6.20am, feeling their way through thick black smoke for several minutes to find the woman.
Little did they know the occupant had been alerted to the blaze in her lounge room by a smoke alarm and had found her own way to safety.
Her house was significantly damaged.
As of that afternoon, the oldest son was being treated in Dandenong Hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning, and the younger son had been released from hospital that morning and had gone to work.
Ms Jones said one of the sons raised the alarm when he saw the fire on his way to work, dropping his lunch box on the lawn and calling out “fire”.
She said the two instinctively went to save the neighbour they’d known all their life.
“I don’t think they think it’s heroic. They did the right thing for their neighbour.
“They’re grown men. I give them their dues to make a calculated assessment of the risk.
“In the end, the main thing is (the woman) is alright.”
Mr Jones sprayed a garden hose on his neighbour’s window frame from a few metres away, watching the water “just evaporate” in the ferocious flames.
“I didn’t even know (my sons) went in there. As I was standing there, the fire spread into the roof in five or 10 minutes.”
Four Hallam and Dandenong CFA crews brought the fire – which had spread through the roof – under control within 20 minutes.
Hallam CFA senior station officer Stephen Keating praised the boys’ “very valiant” efforts – and added that it was “a fantastic example of how a working smoke alarm saves lives”.
He said the fire appeared non-suspicious.
