POLICE are investigating an incident in Tootgarook involving illegal fireworks and flares on New Year’s Eve that caused significant damage to a house and left a 57-year-old woman trapped inside.
Tootgarook carpenter Jon Croft is being hailed a “hero” after he raced to the burning house in Alma Street just after midnight to help the disabled occupant escape through a front window.
Croft was walking with his wife Amy just after midnight when he heard fireworks and flares being let off and soon after heard calls for help coming from a house.
Croft told the media he could see a woman in distress in the house and ran across the street to help her.
Confronted by flames and smoke, he had to smash a window to help the woman climb out.
Assistant Commissioner Michael Granger told the media that police will allege some neighbours let go of flares and in an effort to recover those flares and look after her property the woman was injured.
She was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Other incidents involving illegal fireworks and flares have horrified members of the public caught up in out-of-control celebrations.
At Rye, a family was left “terrified” when partygoers on the pier thew firecrackers at children.
One social media user posted that she was on the pier when people just started throwing flares at each other and her children. People were running and screaming,” she said.
“What a disaster.”
On the night, across the state Victoria police responded to 64 fireworks incidents, arrested 33 people and seized 26 weapons.
First published in the Mornington News – 9 January 2024