Two children have been killed and another two are fighting for their life in hospital following a garden shed fire at a property.
Fire outbreak
The blaze broke out inside a garden shed out the back of a home on Officer Court in Corio, a suburb of Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, at 10:30am on Sunday.
Emergency services were called to the scene including police, ambulance and fire and rescue crews.
It’s been confirmed that two children died in the fire while another two were airlifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital in a critical condition.
Ambulance Victoria said the two surviving children, who are understood to be of pre-school age, suffered severe burns.
Their father accompanied them to the hospital. It’s understood their mother was inside the house and the four children where in the shed when the blaze broke out.
The fire is not being treated as suspicious. The children are yet to be identified. Fire Rescue Victoria and Country Fire Authority crews managed to put out the blaze.
Police and fire crews have cordoned off Officer Court and Norberry Rd, with vehicles being turned away.
Investigation launched
An investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire. ‘It will take us some time to examine the scene,’ Police Inspector Emma Bartel said at the scene, as reported by the Geelong Advertiser.
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‘It is an awful, tragic event that’s happened, and for the sake of the family that are involved and the community, we owe it to them to find out what did take place.
‘It is unfortunately the worst-case scenario of what we can expect with an incident like this.
One neighbour told the publication she had ‘never seen anything like this’ after living on Officer Court for 10 years.
She described the incident as ‘devastating’ while another neighbour said it was ‘tragic’.
