The early hours of Sunday was a disastrous one for a renowned cameraman and his daughter as they were burnt to death in a house fire on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The report has it that the former ABC cameraman, Les Wasley, 86, and his daughter Linda in her 40s, were killed when their Bayview home caught fire in the early hours on Sunday.
The son, an off-duty Narrabeen firefighter, was in the hospital with his mother who made it out of the fire with a broken leg.
So sad an event it was because the just celebrated cameraman and cinematographer, was recently inducted into the Australian Cinematographers Society Hall of Fame. He worked as a news cameramen for the Nine Network before moving to the ABC in 1966 where he shot both documentary and news pieces.
A NSW fire and rescue spokesperson told the authorities that they might never know what started the fire which some thought may have started in a bedroom.
“The damage and the destruction was too bad to be able to pinpoint (its cause),” the spokesman said. “We’ll try and determine the cause but at this stage, there’s no way of telling.” Two neighbors who tried to help were also taken to the hospital as they too sustained some injuries and various degrees of burnt.
Sending my condolences to the family