Two Hamilton sisters are on a long road to recovery after an explosion at a shearing quarters left one woman in an induced coma and another with second degree burns.
Olivia and Jesse Jones were at Telopea Downs, in West Wimmera, on October 17 following a three week shearing stint with their brother Brady and parents Sally and David.
The family, a group of seven workers, as well as the farm manager and his wife, were standing around a fire about 7.30pm.
When fuel was poured into the drum of the fire, it exploded and the two sisters were set alight.
Jesse, 21, said she instantly dropped to the ground and slapped her face in an attempt to put the fire out.
"All I could hear was crackling hair. I could taste the fuel in my mouth," she said.
"I remember trying to pull my jumper off over my head because it kept catching fire and relighting."
Jesse said she remembered being spear-tackled and then carried to a shower.
"We had to turn all the showers in the shower block on so the pressure wasn't too full on for my burns. I remember standing there just crying," she said.
She asked her roommate Dre to take her bra off but soon realised it had melted to her skin.
"I was standing there in the water and then I heard someone say 'how's Olivia in the other shower block?' I remember going crazy when I heard that," Jesse said.
"I didn't even realise Olivia had been burned as well, my heart sank. Everyone was trying to calm me down because all I could think and ask about was Olivia."
Olivia, 23, said as soon as the explosion occurred, she felt her head and face on fire.
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"I immediately tried to take the singlet off that I was wearing to try to smother my head," she said.
The wool classer dived to the ground and a worker Luke, who the Jones family grew up with and is like a big brother, jumped on top her.
"Luke had been splashed with the fuel so his arm caught fire from trying to put my head out," she said.
Once the fire was out, Olivia was also carried to the showers. She said she couldn't breathe and felt like her nostrils were on fire.
She recalled asking where her two-year-old daughter Winslow was.
"Mum said some of the workers were trying to keep her occupied or entertained and just keep her away from the situation," she said.
But Winslow eventually ended up in the shower block, her "little hand held mine the whole time", Olivia said.
"I don't remember anything else until the ambulance got there," she said.
When the sisters saw each other for the first time inside an air ambulance, they both broke down.
"I remember seeing (Olivia) and just crying. She did the same thing when she saw me," Jesse said.
"I think we both passed out at that point."
But Jesse said she soon woke to her airways closing over.
She was transferred to an ambulance at Horsham and placed in an induced coma.
"I remember asking the paramedic 'will I wake up?' And his reply was 'of course you will, don't be silly'," Jesse said.
The shearer was in a coma for the following four days.
She recalled hearing her parents speak but more vividly a story her dad told her about her Red Heeler dog Charli, who sat at the bottom of the shower with her at the shearing quarters.
"That killed me to hear that," she said.
Jesse had skin grafts donated from her thigh to her hand, chest area, left arm, and a large graft from under her left breast through to her armpit and up to the back of her shoulder.
The latter was from where her bra had melted to her skin.
She has slowly started her journey to walking again, despite an infected lung and a blood clot found in her left leg. She was discharged from ICU on October 24 and is now being treated in The Alfred's burns unit.
Olivia was discharged from the unit on October 20 but has frequent visits to hospital for dressing changes and checkups.
She suffered second degree burns to her face, hands, shoulders and back.
Olivia said on the morning after the incident, her eyes had swollen shut and part of her face was unrecognisable.
Her hands were blistered to the point she couldn't pick up a fork, she had to sleep sitting upright due to swelling, and her burnt hair had to be shaved off.
Her dad, brother Brady, 16, and brother-in-law Sam have since shaved theirs too.
Olivia said the hardest thing of all was being away from her daughters Winslow and Molly.
"Molly turned one on Saturday. I missed my baby girl's first birthday," she said.
Maddison Jones, 25, said her two sisters were both "unreal and have held themselves together so bloody well".
"We couldn't be more proud of them," she said.
Maddison has since launched a GoFundMe to help in her sister's road to recovery.
More than $30,000 was donated in just six days.
"It's going to be a long road ahead with recovery, physio and getting back to a reasonable norm," Maddison said.
"Olivia is a single mum of the two girls as well, so any support that they can receive, and have received has been so appreciated."
Maddison said they were overwhelmed by the support.
"Seeing all of the communities coming together to support them has been amazing," she said.
"Not only just our local town Hamilton but our family and friends from Balranald (NSW) and surrounding communities has been so unreal.
"And the outpouring of support and love from our fellow shearers and shearing teams, we'll never be able to express our love and gratitude to them all."
Maddison urged the community to be safe around fires.
Jessica Howard
jessica.howard@warrnamboolstandard.com.au
jessica.howard@warrnamboolstandard.com.au
