BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (BNO NEWS) — Eleven people were killed on early Wednesday morning in a house fire near Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland, emergency officials said. Eight children are among those killed.
Two Pacific Islander families from Tonga and Samoa were inside the two-story house in Slacks Creek, south of Brisbane, when it caught fire shortly after midnight. “The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service (QFRS) received multiple triple-zero calls shortly after midnight,” a spokesperson for QFRS said.
Three women and eight children are believed to have been killed in the blaze, according to police. One of the children was said to be as young as 3 years old.
Two men were able to escape the deadly fire at the home. One of them was treated at the scene for facial burns before being transported to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a stable condition. Another man with a shoulder injury was assessed at the scene, but was not transported to hospital.
Fire crews found four gas cylinders, which were stored under the house, “venting quite badly” but said they did not explode. However, a number of witnesses reported hearing loud bangs in the area when the fire broke out, according to the Brisbane Times newspaper.
Four bodies have been removed from the home, while the remaining seven bodies are believed to be in the ground level of the house near the seat of the fire. Police Superintendent Noel Powers from nearby Logan police headquarters said work to recover more victims would resume on Thursday morning.
“I hope we’ll be able to retrieve the remaining bodies,” he said. “There’s been some flooring collapse as well, so it’s a bit of a mess, still quite dangerous and we’re still working with Queensland Fire and Rescue to shore up parts of the house and make things safe for the people who need to get in there and do their job.”
Powers described the incident as a tragedy unlike any he had ever seen. “It’s a total, utter catastrophe. It’s a tragedy beyond all proportions,” he said. Police do not believe the fire was suspicious, but an investigation is currently underway into the cause of the blaze.
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