3 truckers killed while trying to drive through Outback wildfire

The Associated Press

1/2/2008

PERTH, Australia — Three people died in two trucks when they apparently were caught in a huge wildfire in western Australia’s Outback hours after authorities reopened the highway running through the affected area, police said Monday.

Police found the bodies of three men overnight in the burnt wrecks on a highway in a national park 280 miles east of the Western Australia state capital Perth, state Deputy Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said. Police earlier said one of the victims was a child.

The trucks had been trying to travel 120 miles west from the town of Coolgardie to Southern Cross along the Great Eastern Highway — the main route from Perth to eastern Australia.

The highway was closed several times over the weekend because of a fire that started burning out of control Friday, but police had temporarily reopened the road Sunday evening, police spokesman Inspector George Putland said.

The bodies of the three victims were found about six hours later.

The two trucks were among up to 15 that attempted to make the journey after the highway reopened.

One made it through to Southern Cross, its driver suffering burns to his hands, police spokesman Sgt. Graham Clifford said. The driver received hospital treatment but was not admitted, police spokesman Ian Haselby said.

Seven abandoned their trailers because they could not turn around with them attached and returned to Coolgardie, Haselby said. The trailers were destroyed along 11 miles of charred wreckage, he said.

At least one other truck driver, John Savage, made it through.

“I was lucky my fuel tanks didn’t explode,” Savage told reporters. “The heat was so unbelievable.”

State Premier Alan Carpenter said it was too early to say who was to blame for the tragedy, and a coroner will investigate.

“I can’t imagine a worse circumstance to befall people,” Carpenter told reporters.

The fire continued to burn out of control across sparsely populated countryside.

It had scorched more than 25,000 acres by Sunday as temperatures soared to 43 degrees 109 degrees Fahrenheit and winds reaching 28 miles per hour fanned the flames, authorities said.