Children trek to raise fire alarm

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.

Fran Conn, 13, carried her 4-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 4-year-old twin brother Will died in the farmhouse fire 50km southeast of Coonamble.