Three dead, three orphaned after farmhouse blaze

SYDNEY - Three children who trekked 3km across rugged countryside in western New South Wales to raise the alarm as their parents and brother perished in a house fire, have been praised as heroes by the rural fire service.

Thirteen-year-old Fran Conn carried her four-year-old brother and led her 10-year-old sister on a barefoot trek through the dark across rough country paddocks early yesterday morning to alert their nearest neighbours of the blaze.

Their parents Tony and Belinda Conn and their other four-year-old twin brother Will died in the farmhouse fire 50km south-east of Coonamble.

Police say it appears Mr and Mrs Conn and their surviving children escaped the housefire, which began at about 5.30am, but the parents went back inside the house when they realised their other son was missing.

Rural Fire Service assistant commissioner Mark Crosweller has praised the children's bravery in trying to save their parents and little brother.

Mr Crosweller told Sky News the children did an exceptional job in travelling so far to raise the alarm, and should be commended for doing so.

The three surviving children were last night in the care of Mr Conn's brother Peter.

A neighbour says 55-year-old Mr Conn had spent all his life on the property, Wilga Downs, which was owned by his parents before him.

Police investigators will today sift through the ruins of a farmhouse fire to determine the cause.

A police spokesman said investigators would examine the ruins of the house today to find clues that could help establish the cause of the fire.

An autopsy will also be held at Sydney's Glebe Morgue on the three bodies tomorrow, she said.

- AAP