June 2, 2026 — 1:42pmVictoria’s firefighting union has claimed a toddler killed in a Werribee house fire might still be alive if the nearest station in Tarneit been properly resourced.“[Tarneit] firefighters have been asking the government for a second truck for years,” secretary of the United Firefighters Union Peter Marshall told The Age 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 has been hospitalised 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.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.Three-year-old Jordan Dashwood died in the fire that broke out early Monday morning.FRV’s service delivery standards require all units to respond to Code One (emergency) callouts within seven minutes and 42 seconds. Marshall said that after this time, it becomes very hard for firefighters to save lives.“The closest available resource responded, which meant CFA crews were first on scene,” a spokesperson for Fire Rescue Victoria 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 footage obtained by this masthead shows the fire initially growing after a large bang within the Werribee home after 40 seconds. Within two minutes, the fire can be seen spreading to the other side of the house, while some people can be seen evacuating from the property after five minutes. After seven minutes and 42 seconds, the building appears to be totally engulfed in flames.The cause of the fire is yet to be officially declared, with a report being prepared for the coroner.Having spoken to the firefighters who responded to the Werribee blaze, Marshall said the experience will impact 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 One standard 63.6 per cent of the time, and had an average response time of 12 minutes.Only two FRV stations – Lara and Caroline Springs – had a worse record.Tarneit also received more emergency incident call-outs than any of the seven other fire stations in its FRV group over these three months. It received 271 emergency incident call-outs in that period, three times more than some of the other stations in its group.Emergency Services Minister Vicki Ward has been contacted for comment.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.From our partners