Back in 2002: The burnt out remains of “The Mansion” in St James.
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This article was originally published in January 2002.
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A Molyullah man is being hailed a hero for risking his life checking a St James home engulfed in flames.
Painting contractor Stefan Wolff entered the burning building not once, but three times, groping around in the darkened, smoke-filled house to see if anyone was trapped inside.
He had been driving to a job at Tungamah about 7.30 am last Thursday when he saw a pall of smoke, which he at first thought was dust.
Soon it became clear the cloud was smoke billowing from a large, wooden framed house on Main St, St James, adjacent to the bowling club.
Mr Wolff leapt from his vehicle, raised the alarm by phoning 000 on his mobile and then sprinted to the front door of the blazing house.
Finding the front door locked, he kicked it in only to find himself in pitch darkness, in choking smoke.
“I couldn’t see anything, I may as well have been blind,” Mr Wolff said.
Checking out what he could of the house, he made his way back outside and round to bedroom windows which he kicked in to again get inside, on two further occasions.
Inside the bedrooms he groped about in the dark, turning back sheets on beds by feel to see if anyone was in them, overcome by smoke.
Satisfied there was no one inside, he emerged from the blazing building in time to lend a hand to arriving firemen battling to bring the flames under control.
Hero: In 2002 Stefan Wolff was on hand to check for anyone trapped in a house fire in St James.
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Reluctant to be called a hero, Mr Wolff said it was more a case of instinctive reaction when he came across a fire.
He said it was not until he was on a job at Yarrawonga a couple of hours later that the enormity of what he had done struck him.
“The nerves cut in, I was useless then and went home for the day.”
His wife Nicole, while acknowledging her husband’s courage, had called him a “bloody idiot” for putting himself at such great risk.
Mr Wolff said he had no training in fire fighting but as a result of what had happened, he had gained a whole new respect for fire fighters.
He said the first engine arrived within minutes and that fire crews had done a tremendous job keeping the blaze away from neighbouring properties.
Nothing could be done to save the St James home, owned by Graham and Helen Hodgson, and known in the town as “the mansion”.
St James Senior Constable Haydn Smith said Mr Wolff was indeed a hero for his selfless act.
He said the blaze was not suspicious and that a fire investigator was probing the cause.
Fortunately, Mr and Mrs Hodgson, their son Dean, and Mrs Hodgson’s mother were all away from home.
The fire was so intense that it ignited a large conifer tree in the front yard, requiring three fire hoses to extinguish it and scorched the paint off a carport belonging to neighbour Bert Roberts.
Mr Roberts said smoke had drifted into his home through vents and had set off his smoke alarms.
Thursday proved to be a very eventful — or stressful — day for hero Mr Wolff for more than one reason.
Later in the day one of his painting crew Peter Bell was washing out a spray unit in Mr Wolff’s shed when the power point exploded.
In a third incident, he had electrical problems which could have resulted in a pump being burnt out.
All in all, it was a day which he is never likely to forget.
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