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TUESDAY, 17 JANUARY, 2023
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SUPERHERO Sale man saves woman from burning house.
POLICE BEAT
Photos: Zoe Askew
PAGE 2
PAGES 18-19
GEARING UP SPORT
Zoe Askew KEVIN Tormey has been heralded a hero by his neighbours after saving a woman’s life from her burning home. Kevin Tormey stood bashing on the bedroom window of Unit 1, 5-7 Futcher Court, Sale, where inside, the female resident lay sleeping as thick black smoke inundated the home. “Ev (wife) was the first one who noticed the fire,” Mr Tormey said. Standing at her kitchen sink at about 2.30pm on Monday, January 9, Eveyln Tormey suddenly caught a whiff of smoke. “I came out here (outside), and it was out the back there, a big puff of black smoke,” Mrs Tormey said, pointing to the cindered unit. “I called to Kevin and said ‘Kev, there’s a fire’, that’s when he ran out.” Mr Tormey alerted his surrounding neighbours, hastily making his way to the Unit 2 bedroom window upon realising the female resident remained inside. Flames lipped over the roof’s edge at the rear of the unit as the fire quickly spread, black smoke now pouring onto the street, blanketing neighbouring yards. Heat radiated from the property as flames devoured everything in their path. Many would flee, their safety now jeopardised, but
not Mr Tormey. The 67-year-old neighbour frantically banged on the bedroom window until the female resident stumbled out of the front door with her dog. She was safe. As Mr Tormey stepped away from the burning home, following the female resident, the bedroom window behind him, the bedroom window he had stood banging at to save the life inside, exploded, glass and searing heat violently spearing past him. A terrified Mrs Tormey watched her husband of 60 years, the father to their six children, grandfather to their 24 grandchildren and great-grandfather to their 42 great-grandchildren, as he risked his life to help another. “She has come out with the dog, half asleep, and just ran out,” Mrs Tormey said. “By the time he got her out, the whole back end of the house was on fire. “If Kevin hadn’t done that, she would have died. “I was yelling at Kev to come away, but he knew she was in there, so it’s only natural he would try and save her.” Despite having lived through the Ash Wednesday bushfires, one of Australia’s worst bushfires in history, Mr and Mrs Tormey had never seen smoke so black and so thick as they did at the Futcher Court unit fire last Monday afternoon. “The black smoke; the smoke was the worst,” Mr Tormey said.
“I don’t know what was making it so black, but it was so thick you could hardly see.” In the days following the fire, Mr Tormey presented to Sale Hospital after waking to blood on his pillowcase. “Two days after, he woke up, and there was blood on the pillowcase, so I took him straight to the doctor,” Mrs Tormey said. “He has had an x-ray, and they said in a couple of days, if it is too hard to breathe, he has got some very strong steroids to take to try and clear the lungs.” Unit 2 resident Joe Lambourn, who has been there for more than 30 years; is among the Futcher Court residents hailing Mr Tormey a hero. “He deserves to be recognised for what he did,” Mr Lambourn said. “Kev, who should never have been put in this position, came and alerted me, alerted our other neighbour Kayleen before going to Unit 1 to get her [the female resident] out. “It was so scary; he risked his life; he was so bloody lucky, half a second longer at that window, and who knows what would have happened? It literally exploded the second he stepped away. “He then came over to help me with the fire.” Mr Lambourn and Mr Tormey laid on the roof of Unit 2, 5-7 Futcher Court Sale with water hoses, attempting to prevent the blaze from reaching Mr Lambourn’s home of 32 years. Continued Page 4
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