Arabic version: وفاة مسنين في حريقَي منزلين منفصلين في نيو ساوث ويلز

According to ABC News, two elderly people died in separate house fires overnight in Villawood in western Sydney and Greenwell Point, east of Nowra, on the New South Wales South Coast. The fires began within hours of each other, taking the state’s winter structure-fire death toll to 13.

Firefighters were called to a house fire on Tuncoee Road, Villawood, at 6pm. Crews rescued a woman in her 50s, while a woman in her 70s later died at Liverpool Hospital after being treated for smoke inhalation.

Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said investigators believed the Villawood blaze was linked to a cooking fire. He said investigators did not find a working smoke alarm at the property, describing working alarms as critical to surviving a house fire.

At about 10pm, a separate fire began inside a mobile home at a tourist park in Greenwell Point. Firefighters found the body of an elderly man after putting out the flames. Another man was taken to hospital in a serious condition with serious burns and smoke inhalation.

Shoalhaven Rural Fire Service operations officer Anthony Ciccaldo said crews confronted risks including gas bottles and nearby mobile homes. NSW recorded 856 house fires during the colder months this season, compared with more than 1,000 last winter, but fatalities have risen from nine to 13. Fewtrell said elderly people are often over-represented in fire fatality data because mobility issues can make escape harder.