A child has died while a woman and two other children are fighting for their lives after a horror house fire in Queensland.
Emergency services rushed to Harristown, a suburb in Toowoomba about 127km west of Brisbane, at around 12.30am following reports of a house fire.
Firefighters found the Merritt Street home fully engulfed in flames before desperately working to bring the blaze under control.
Six people were able to escape the fire including a 34-year-old man, a 36-year-old woman and four children.
Authorities confirmed on Wednesday that a fifth child, who was ‘unaccounted’ for at the time of the fire, had died.
Queensland Fire Department station manager Neil Goodman said fire crews located the child’s body ‘near the front door’.
‘Once (crews) could bring the fire under control sufficiently, just near the front door, they located one (deceased person),’ Mr Goodman told 7News.
The woman and two of the children, including a female toddler and a primary-school-aged girl, were rushed to Toowoomba Hospital in a life-threatening condition after suffering significant burns.
A child has died and a woman and two other children taken to hospital in a critical condition after a horror house fire in Toowoomba, Queensland
The man was also taken to hospital with serious burns to his arm and remains in a potentially life-threatening condition.
A primary-school-aged boy with burns and a teenage boy, with a hand injury, were also taken to hospital but are in a stable condition.
Mr Goodman said firefighters were greeted with a ‘wall of flame and heavy smoke’ when they arrived at the scene as the fire mostly impacted the front of the home.
‘The guys had quite… a difficult time making access and getting in to conduct a primary search,’ Mr Goodman said.
After speaking with a family member who was ‘hysterical’, Mr Goodman advised fire and rescue crews on where they might be able to find the missing child.
‘We’re all fathers, we’ve all got children, so its aways hard, it’s a little bit harder when its sort of similar to your own situation,’ Mr Goodman said.
It took about 30 minutes for four fire crews to extinguish the fire.
Police have since declared the home a crime scene and have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
Anyone who may have information or relevant vision, including CCTV or dashcam footage, is being urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
