POLICE have described the scene where three family members died in a water tank in NSW as a “tragic set of devastating occurrences”.
The two men and a woman, all aged in their 60s, were killed early Thursday evening on the property on Veterans Road, Gunning, on the Southern Tablelands, approximately one hour from Canberra.
It appears the victims were poisoned by carbon monoxide from a “high pressure” petrol engine on a water pump near the tank. Police confirmed there was no drowning involved and that
fumes from the pump are likely to have killed all three.
Emergency services were called to the property by a neighbour about 6.20pm after reports of the trio collapsing in the empty groundwater tank.
One man is thought to have collapsed inside the wall and when the second man and woman went inside to help him they too both collapsed.
The series of events began when a 69-year-old man went into the tank for water maintenance. He collapsed shortly afterwards. The man’s 68-year-old brother then went into the tank and collapsed too.
The first man’s wife, a 69-year-old women, entered the tank after the second man had collapsed.
All three died within a couple hours of each other.
When officers from the Hume Local Area Command arrived all three were already dead.
“From initial reports there were high levels of poisonous gas in the water tank,” Superintendent Andrew Koutsoufis said at the scene.
The bodies had to be left in the tank overnight because of fumes.
Supt Koutsoufis said the tragedy had deeply impacted the closely knit township of Gunning and its surrounding farming communities, saying there was often a “wide ranging impact when heartbreaking events such as this occur in rural towns.”
The deaths are not being treated as suspicious. Police said they were preparing a brief for the coroner.
“They all did a wonderful job in response to a really nasty incident,” Supt Koutsoufis said.
Names of the family have not been released at this time. “They need time to grieve,” police said.
Know more? Email: andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au
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