NSW suburbs with the most winter fires in 2024 as Winter Fire Safety Campaign launches

Half of the residents living in the Sydney suburbs most prone to fires last winter didn’t have a working smoke alarm installed in their house, as one survivor speaks out about how a simple decision saved her family’s life.

Half of the residents living in the Sydney suburbs most prone to fires last winter didn’t have a working smoke alarm installed in their house, as one survivor speaks out about how a simple decision saved her family’s life.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal Canterbury-Bankstown topped the 10 worst council areas for fires during winter last year with 63 homes burnt or destroyed in three months.

Blacktown and Central Coast rounded out the top three regions with the most winter blazes, while across the state, more than 1000 fires broke out in NSW homes killing 12 people and injuring more than 100 others between June 1 to August 30.

In Canterbury-Bankstown, 51 per cent of residents did not have a working smoke alarm in their house, despite fire crews typically seeing a 13 per cent increase in house fires as winter begins compared with the rest of the year, according to Fire and Rescue NSW data.

Survivor Montana Adams escaped her burning home with nine others last year thanks to smoke alarms installed just 10 days earlier.

Sydney mother Montana Adams' two-storey house in Macquarie Fields was destroyed last May but her life and the lives of eight other occupants were saved when their smoke alarms sounded. Picture: Fire and Rescue NSW

The Sydney mother was asleep in her two-storey house in Macquarie Fields when the alarm sounded in the early hours of May 28 last year. Ms Adams rushed to get seven children out of the house including her own kids, foster children and grandchildren and a guest, just before flames engulfed their home.

“We just grabbed (the kids) like shopping bags,” Ms Adams said, “the children were screaming and saying, ‘we’re going to die, we’re going to die … and I was just screaming at them, ‘get out, get out, get out.’

“My fiance, Craig, and I were backing the cars away from the burning house when the upstairs windows exploded … it was like a Hollywood movie effect.

“We lost everything in that fire, our homes and possessions were destroyed, and I’m still traumatised a year later, but we’re all alive today because those smoke alarms sounded.”

Only 10 days before the blaze an unrelated fire broke out at the house due to a suspected air conditioner fault, leading local firefighters to install smoke alarms on both levels.

“If we didn’t have those smoke alarms fitted a few days earlier, I have no doubt the result would have been tragic,” Ms Adams said.

Ms Adams' urged others to get their smoke alarms installed and tested. Picture: Fire and Rescue NSW

More than 40 per cent of winter fires last year started in household kitchens from cooking and electrical appliances, while heaters, chargers and lithium-ion batteries are also leading causes of fire during the colder months.

A man and woman escaped from their Bonnyrigg Heights home on Friday morning as a blaze tore through the house. The Sunday Telegraph understands there were no working batteries inside their smoke alarm.

In a bid to prevent more fires as the temperatures drop, Fire and Rescue NSW will launch their Winter Fire Safety Campaign this weekend.

Firefighters had installed smoke alarms in the house just 10 days before the blaze. Picture: Fire and Rescue NSW

Firefighters will be doorknocking offering free inspections and potentially lifesaving advice on Sunday, installing new smoke alarms for free in homes which need one.

Minister for Emergency Services Jihad Dib urged people across the state, including in his own suburb of Bankstown, to prepare their fire plan even though the summer fire season is over.

“This winter the NSW Government wants to ensure households have a working smoke alarm installed. They can give residents the crucial seconds needed to get everyone out safely,” he said.

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Originally published as NSW suburbs with the most winter fires in 2024 as Winter Fire Safety Campaign launches