TWO local shearing sisters, Jesse and Olivia Jones have recounted the night that unexpectedly changed their lives, when a devastating accident left them both in hospital with serious burns.

On October 17, Jesse, 21, and Olivia, 23, were working at a property in Telopea Downs and were spending their evening standing around a fire lit in a 44-gallon drum, alongside their brother - Brady, parents - Sally and David, and the rest of the shearing team.

Tragedy then struck when a jerry can was used to pour fuel on the fire which caused the drum and can to explode, setting alight both Jesse and Olivia who were standing two or three metres away.

Jesse said she threw herself onto the ground straight away to extinguish the flames.

“All I could hear was crackling hair … I could taste the fuel in my mouth,” she said.

“I remember trying to pull my jumper off over my head because it kept catching fire and relighting.

“Then I remember someone yelling ‘take it off her, get it off her’.

“I remember the farm manager and someone else spear-tackling me and also slapping me and trying to put me out.”

Olivia had the same instinct as her sister and also threw herself on the ground while trying to take off her singlet. 

“As soon as the fire exploded, and I felt my head and face on fire, I immediately tried to take the singlet off that I was wearing to try to smother my head,” she said.

“I dived to the ground and was ripping at my singlet, that’s why mine and Jesse’s left hands are burnt; we were obviously both doing the same thing just smacking our heads trying to put it out and that’s the side that was facing the fire when we tried to turn away from the explosion.

“Not long after I dived onto the ground I just remember Luke (one of the workers who grew up with the girls and who they describe as a big brother) diving on top of me and hitting me too, I know now he’d taken his shirt off and was doing the same thing.

“Luke had been splashed with the fuel so his arm caught fire from trying to put my head out.”

After the flames had been extinguished, both girls were carried to the shower block where the immensity of the incident hit them.

Jesse said she remembered all the showers being turned on so the pressure was reduced and would not further hurt her skin.

“While I was in the shower I remember standing there just crying,” she said.

“I told Dre, my roommate, to take my bra off, but as she did, we soon found out that it had melted to my skin. Especially under my armpit.

“I had touched my forehead and lips while I was in the shower and I remember it feeling rubbery and wrinkly.

“I could see the skin on my hands looked as if it was melting off … I think being in shock at that moment I could only feel what I could see.

“I was standing there in the water, and then I heard someone say, ‘how’s Olivia in the other shower block?.’

“I remember going crazy when I heard that. I didn’t even realise Olivia had been burned as well, my heart sank.

“Everyone was trying to calm me down because all I could think and ask about was Olivia.”

Sitting on the bottom of a nearby shower, Olivia was also unaware that Jesse had been burnt until around 20 minutes later. 

“All I could smell was fuel. My nostrils were burning, I remember feeling my nostrils on fire because I couldn’t breathe,” she said.

“I remember asking where my daughter Winslow was, and mum had said some of the workers were trying to keep her occupied or entertained and just keep her away from the situation but Winslow eventually ended up in the shower block, her little hand held mine the whole time.

“I don’t remember anything else until the ambulance got there.”

Both girls were transported to Horsham by helicopter, where Jesse was then placed in an ambulance, intubated and put to sleep due to her experiencing difficulty breathing.

“I remember asking the paramedic ‘will I wake up?’ And his reply was ‘of course you will, don’t be silly’,” she said.

Later, upon arrival at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, both girls had their wounds cleaned, with Olivia saying she remembered feeling her hair and noticing her scrunchie had melted into it.

“It was all singed and stuck together in one big matte,” she said.

“I just hoped that after all of this, I could at least keep my hair.”

When Jesse arrived at the Alfred she said she recalled laying on her stomach unable to move or speak, and feeling the doctors and nurses “ripping the skin off” her hands.

She was then placed in an induced coma for four days and underwent surgery on October 20, realising what had happened the next day when she woke up to pain in her thigh.

“I had my surgery on Wednesday the 20th but was unaware of it until Friday,” she said.

“I had woken from my coma on Thursday morning sometime. I felt pain in my thigh and I thought I had ‘cuts’ on it, but before I was even told I’d had surgery I knew that thighs are a donation site for skin grafts.

“So I just knew I had had surgery.”

Jesse is not quite out of the woods yet after a blood clot was found in her left leg where the grafts were taken and another in her lung which is now infected, however, she was discharged from the intensive care unit on Monday and is now being taken care of in the 6 West Burns unit.

Olivia was receiving treatment in the 6 West Burns unit but was discharged last Thursday as she is now able to use her hands enough to clean her burns and self-medicate.

She experienced burns, blistering and swelling on her face, as well as burns to her shoulder and hands, luckily her airways were fine and there was no permanent damage to her sight.

Unfortunately, Olivia’s hair had to be shaved, with her dad, brother, and brother-in-law all shaving their heads in support.

While the road to recovery will be a long one both physically and mentally, Olivia and Jesse are doing well and managing to stay in high spirits despite going through such a tragic and avoidable experience, which also caused Olivia to miss her daughter’s first birthday.

The girl’s sister, Maddison Jones created a GoFundMe to assist with costs while they recover, with the community already showing tremendous support for the sisters and their families, raising over $30,000.

“It’s going to be a long road ahead with recovery, physio and getting back to a reasonable norm,” she said.

“Any support that they can receive and have received has been so appreciated.

“Seeing all of the communities coming together to support them has been amazing.

“Not only just our local town, Hamilton, but our family and friends from Balranald and surrounding communities has been so unreal.”

Maddison said the family had also received incredible support from the shearing community and she urged everyone to remain cautious around fires.

“The outpouring of support and love from our fellow shearers and shearing teams; we’ll never be able to express our love and gratitude to them all,” she said.

“We’ve all seen or heard of someone lighting a fire with petrol, or diesel, but obviously this just shows the extent, and how easily things can go wrong.

“If you can’t be smart around fire, don’t light one at all.”

Anyone who would like to donate to the GoFundMe for Olivia and Jesse Jones can visit, gofundme.com/f/olivia-and-jesses-recovery