Werribee toddler’s death could have been avoided, firefighters’ union says

Victoria’s firefighting union has claimed a toddler killed in a Werribee house fire might still be alive if the nearest station in Tarneit had been better resourced.

“[Tarneit] firefighters have been asking the government for a second truck for years,” secretary of the United Firefighters Union Peter Marshall said on Tuesday. “Had there been a second truck, there would have been a different outcome to this tragedy.”

Three-year-old Jordan Dashwood died in a house fire in Werribee early on Monday morning. His father, Jeremy, is in hospital with serious burns after trying to save his son. Two other family members were inside the house when the fire began but escaped uninjured.

Footage obtained by The Age shows that while an ambulance arrived at the scene within four minutes, the first fire truck – a Country Fire Authority volunteer vehicle – arrived after 10 minutes, with a second truck from Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) arriving after 11 minutes.

The video shows the fire initially growing 40 seconds after a loud bang within the Werribee home. Within two minutes, the fire can be seen spreading to the other side of the house, while people flee the property after five minutes. After seven minutes and 42 seconds, the building appears to be engulfed in flames.

Marshall said on Tuesday that despite Tarneit being the closest station, the first FRV truck to arrive on the scene had come from the Point Cook station because Tarneit’s one vehicle was attending a road accident.

Marshall said that had a second truck been available at the Tarneit station – as responders have long been asking for – “there would have only been a five or six-minute response” time.

FRV’s service delivery standards require all units to respond to Code One (emergency) callouts within seven minutes and 42 seconds, beginning from when emergency services are alerted.

Marshall said that after this time, it became very hard for firefighters to save lives.

“The closest available resource responded, which meant CFA crews were first on scene,” an FRV spokesperson said. “FRV resources arrived on scene as soon as they became available.”

Marshall said that if a truck arrives within the Code One window, “it’s a small fire, or a smaller fire. After that, you have a phenomenon called ‘flashover’, which means the total building is involved [and] it’s highly unlikely there will be a rescue.”

The cause of the fire is yet to be officially declared. A report is being prepared for the coroner.

Having spoken to the firefighters who responded to the Werribee blaze, Marshall said the experience would affect them for the rest of their lives.

“It’s hard for emergency services to live with the loss of any life, but when you lose a child … that will stay with them in a profound way for the rest of their career,” he said.

“They are extremely distraught, more so because they believe there could have been a different outcome had the Allan government given them the resources they needed.”

Publicly available data shows that between July and September 2025 – the most recent reporting period – the FRV brigade at Tarneit responded within the seven minutes and 42 second code 1 standard 63.1 per cent of the time, and had an average response time of 12 minutes.

Only Lara (26.1 per cent) and Caroline Springs (59.7 per cent) FRV stations performed worse in that period.

Tarneit also received more emergency incident callouts than any of the seven other fire stations in its FRV group over those three months. It received 271 emergency incident callouts in that period, three times more than some of the other stations in its group.

Overall, FRV groups in Melbourne’s outer west failed to meet the seven minute 42 second benchmark the most over that period, responding within that timeframe on just 77.5 per cent of occasions.

FRV responded to 86.1 per cent of structure fires within the seven minute 42 second benchmark across all regions during that time.

In the 2024-25 financial year FRV responded to structure fires within the timeframe 87.2 per cent of the time, according to its latest available annual report. Although this was the best performance for some years, the target set by the government and FRV is 90 per cent.

A spokesperson for the government said: “We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones affected by this tragic loss.”

“Operational decisions like the deployment of resources are made by the relevant fire agencies.”

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