Twin four-year-old girls die in Byron Bay hinterland house fire

A candle placed on a piano is thought to have started a “devastating” house fire near Byron Bay which killed young twin girls in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Police at the property where the girls died overnight. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Danielle Smith

A distressed woman called emergency services as a blaze engulfed their home while twin girls slept, begging, “Hurry, the babies can’t breathe.”

The woman called triple-0 from the home at Nunkeri Multi Occupancy commune in the Byron Bay hinterland pleading with paramedics to come quickly.

“The girls are struggling to breathe, we think it’s an electrical fire,” a source said she told emergency services in the early hours of Sunday.

Paramedics battled to resuscitate the sisters, aged four, but they died from smoke inhalation.

Flowers in the mailbox at the property where four-year-old twin girls have died after a fire at Goonengarry, west of Byron Bay. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Danielle Smith

“I heard a fire engine go off around 3am and knew something was wrong, it’s quiet around here, we don’t get sirens going off,” one neighbour said.

“I’m told the father is in a bad state. He blames himself. He’s really shaken up.”

It is believed the girls were visiting their father at the commune in Goonengerry, 30kms west of Byron, and the mother was not present.

The fire was billowing with low-level flames when fire and rescue, police and paramedics arrived but there was not much damage to the property.

Police outside the property. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Danielle Smith

Flowers with the message: ‘No words, mourning with you’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Danielle Smith

The woman who called emergency services was treated for smoke inhalation and shock.

Detectives working with fire investigators to determine the cause of the blaze say initial reports suggest a candle may have been left burning inside the home.

The 20-home commune, situated on 100 acres of farmland, has been established for more than 30 years, and is named after the Aboriginal word meaning beautiful.