Woman trapped in blaze dies as firefighters 'attend wrong address'
Fire crews may have gone to the wrong address as a woman in a wheelchair was caught inside a burning house.
Brave neighbours tried to rescue the woman but couldn’t save her from the flames.
A woman in a wheelchair was trapped inside as flames engulfed a Mill Park home, about 19 kilometres northeast of Melbourne.
“Me and my brother here walked to the back, knocking on the windows, he knocked the door down, we tried to get through but too much smoke,” neighbour Torris Keresoma said.
Neighbours rushed over to the home of Viviane Rodger about 5am this morning as soon as they saw the flames, but the mother of two could not be saved.
“Could see that in the room there was a wheelchair,” neighbour Tony Keresoma said.
“We were just trying to see if she was sitting in there, tried to look for her bed, but apparently she was already on the floor.”
Seven News understands firefighters were called to the address an hour and a half earlier, but went to 38A, a home sometimes mistaken for number 36.
CCTV seized from a home across the street is believed to show a firetruck driving past the woman’s home around 3.30am.
It returned at 5am when residents raised the alarm.
Neighbours say the woman had lived in the home for several decades.
She had suffered a number of health problems, including a stroke, and had carers who visited her on a daily basis.
“I’ve been caring for her for four years and she’s a nice person,” Carer Luba Kuric said.
Tony said they may have been able to do something if they had known earlier.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade says it is conducting an internal investigation into the call out.
