By Cassandra Morgan and Melissa Cunningham
Police are investigating whether three children were home alone when they were critically injured in a house fire in Sydenham, in Melbourne’s north-west, on Sunday night.
Five-year-old Izabel, her three-year-old brother Kalais and their 21-month-old sister were pulled unconscious from the house and rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries after emergency services responded to reports of explosions on the suburban street just after 9.30pm. Police are yet to determine where the children’s parents were at the time of the blaze.
Emergency services were called to the Fergus Court house after reports of a loud bang on Sunday night.Credit: Joe Armao
The children remained in a critical condition at the Royal Children’s Hospital on Monday night.
Outside the hospital, Kalais’ father, Jayde Petalas, described them as “the best little kids” who he loved “more than anything”.
“They’re so innocent,” Petalas, who was not with the children at the time of the fire, told Nine News. “I hope they didn’t feel anything to be honest. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Petalas said police had called him on Sunday night to notify him of the fire and let him know the children had been rushed to hospital.
He said he had been told one of the children may not survive, and that all three children, who were found unconscious at the front of the house, suffered smoke inhalation.
“No kids deserve this,” he said. “They would have been petrified.”
Petalas said he was still trying to piece together how the tragedy occurred.
Detective Acting Inspector Adam Henry, from the arson and explosives squad, said the mother and three children moved into the house last week.
He said arson chemists were still working on the cause of the blaze, and believed it started inside the rear of the house, while the children were found at the front of the home.
“This is an incredibly tragic incident and one that certainly would have been very confronting for the first responders, in particular the firefighters who did an incredible job to locate the children and get them out of the home swiftly,” Henry said.
He said police had spoken briefly to the children’s mother, who was with them at the hospital, and said investigators would formally speak to her again.
“She is understandably quite distressed by the incident and remains at hospital with her children,” he said.
“At this stage it’s too early to say whether the fire is suspicious or not, and it’s important we don’t pre-empt any possible outcomes or make any assumptions.”
He was unable to clarify if she or someone else was at home with her children at the time of the fire.
He said investigators believed the fire might have been burning for up to 20 to 30 minutes before the children were rescued from the front of the house.
Henry said detectives had so far found no indication of third-party involvement in the fire.
Arson squad police and firefighters at the scene. Credit: Joe Armao
Neighbours said they heard loud bangs, which were so forceful one woman felt her home several houses down shake. She and other neighbours did not realise anybody lived at the single-storey Fergus Court home, which had been sold in June.
When the fire erupted, neighbours gathered out the front and yelled out in case anyone was inside but did not hear a response, said the woman, who asked not to be named.
She later saw emergency services moving a child beside a fence and performing CPR.
”There were explosions … it shook our whole [house],” the neighbour 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.“
A firefighter carries a dog from inside the house on Monday morning.Credit: Joe Armao
Arson squad detectives and an arson chemist appeared to focus their investigations on a rear courtyard area on Monday morning.
They also analysed a switchboard on the side of the house. Police are yet to rule out whether the fire was suspicious.
Fire Rescue Victoria said crews arrived within six minutes to find the brick home 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.
Power and gas companies also went to the scene as police interviewed neighbours and gathered CCTV footage from nearby homes.
Firefighters carried a dog from the home about 9.45am on Monday. A child’s seat was also removed from the property.
The dog appeared uninjured and was taken away by a council worker just before 10.30am.
Ambulance Victoria said advanced life support and mobile intensive care paramedics attended the scene.
Police urged anyone with information to come forward.
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