A FIRE tanker located less than a kilometre from a fatal house fire in Mount Helen last week did not attend the scene, despite being called.
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Three firefighting units and two support vehicles attended the house fire that tragically claimed the life of a 43-year-old mother of three on Friday.
Neighbours notified police and the CFA after hearing an explosion and seeing flames at the house.
The CFA extinguished the fire but the house was destroyed.
The Courier understands a tanker located at the new Mount Helen depot, about 900m from
the scene, did not attend the fire.
The CFA would not comment on questions about the absence of the tanker from the house fire.
“It is not appropriate for CFA to provide specific details around response to this incident as it is currently subject to a coronial investigation,” a CFA spokesperson said.
“A new fire station at Mount Helen became operational last week and is currently made up of members from Ballarat, Buninyong and Sebastapol fire brigades.
“It operates as a satellite fire station of these brigades.”
The Mount Helen fire station will be officially opened on November 2.
The station was built after the area was identified as one of 50 areas in Victoria at serious risk of bushfire.
The Courier also understands that fire crews took 13 minutes to attend the scene, five minutes longer than the eight-minute service delivery standard recommended for CFA response times.
david jeans@fairfaxmedia.com.au