Arson and Explosives Squad detectives will investigate the circumstances surrounding a fire in Sydenham that has left three children with life-threatening injuries.Credit: Joe Armao
Neighbours told The Age they heard loud bangs, which were so forceful that one woman felt her home several houses down shake from the impact.
She and her partner – like other neighbours – did not realise anybody lived at the home, which recently sold.
When the fire erupted, neighbours gathered out the front and yelled out in case anyone was inside but couldn’t hear anything, the woman, who asked not to be named, said.
She later saw emergency services moving a child beside a fence and performing CPR for “at least 20 minutes”.
“There were explosions … it shook our whole [house],” the woman said.“You could see at the back of the house … a contained flame [going] upwards. They couldn’t hear anything until the fire brigade came and they got their torches and went around the back. They thought someone was actually at the back, screaming.”
Another neighbour, Debbie Zuccala, said she assumed nobody lived at the home and it was undergoing renovations because of a skip out the front.
“Just the loud bang was really incredible – like a bomb. I’ve never heard anything like it,” Zuccala said. Several more bangs followed, and the neighbour thought it was paint tins or other materials that went up in flames.
“Then later we found out that there were little kids inside. That’s horrifying,” Zuccala said. “Nobody thought there was anyone in there, otherwise I reckon every single one of us would have been trying to break in to get to the kids.”
Fire Rescue Victoria said crews arrived within six minutes to find the single-storey brick dwelling fully engulfed.
“Crews wore breathing apparatus to tackle the blaze and conduct an internal search of the property,” a spokesperson said. “Three children were rescued from the house by firefighters.”
It took 30 firefighters and 10 appliances, including a rescue and aerial unit, several hours to extinguish the blaze, which they deemed suspicious.
Power and gas companies also attended the scene.
Ambulance Victoria said advanced life support and mobile intensive care ambulance (MICA) paramedics attended the scene.
A toddler and two children were transported by road ambulance to The Royal Children’s Hospital in critical conditions, a spokesperson said.
Yaser Raza, whose home office has a direct line of sight to the house, was shocked to hear there may have been no parents inside with the children at the time of the blaze.
He works from home Monday to Friday and hasn’t seen anyone move into the property. The last time he saw adults there was when the home was open for inspection on the market weeks ago.
“I’m shocked that anybody lived in there,” he said. “I can see anyone coming in and out. I work here all day. I never noticed anyone.”
Forensics appeared to focus on a back courtyard area on Monday morning, with crews concealed behind a fence.
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