Bowen Mountain house fire near Blue Mountains claims two lives days before family planned move
What should have been a fresh start has turned into tragedy, with two lives lost in a house fire shortly before a planned move.
Two bodies, reportedly those of children, have been found in a two-storey home that burned down near the Blue Mountains overnight.
Emergency services arrived at the scene on Lieutenant Bowen Road in Bowen Mountain at 2.10am on Monday to find the property alight.
A man and four children escaped from the home and are being treated at Nepean Hospital near Penrith for non-life-threatening injuries, including smoke inhalation and minor burns.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.NSW Ambulance said those being treated were two primary school-aged children, a teenager, and a man in his 30s.
On Monday morning, emergency services located two bodies in the search for the remaining two residents of the home, believed to be children.
“We believe that to be of the two children … it is a coroner’s investigation, and we can’t confirm those details until a formal investigation has taken place,” Hawkesbury Police Area Command’s Superintendent Nadine Roberts said.
Investigations are underway to formally identify the bodies.
Drones and detection dogs were being used in the search.
Firefighters spent two hours tackling the blaze overnight and NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Trent Curtin said they were unable to get inside the home.
The fire was extinguished at about 3.30am.
“Firefighters’ dynamic risk assessment would have shown them that it would be too dangerous to go inside the home while it was collapsing,” he said.
“This is a two-storey home, and so it would have been very, very dangerous for firefighters to access the home in the early stages with the home fully engulfed in flames.”
It has been reported that six children, aged between three and 16 and their father were at home at the time of the fire. The family had planned to move to Queensland on Monday, with the mother of the children already on her way when the fire engulfed the home.
“She’s on her way back to be with the family,” Superintendent Roberts said.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and a crime scene has been established at the residence. However, it has been confirmed that the fire is not being treated as suspicious.
Bowen Mountain is located about 80 kilometres from Sydney CBD in the foothills of the Blue Mountains.
