Devastating last moments of three kids, mum killed in house fire
A woman and three children huddled together in an upstairs bedroom before they died in a house fire in Melbourne’s southeast, police said.
The fire ripped through the Glen Waverley home on Sunday about 1.30am after it started in the garage.
Detective Senior Sergeant Neville Major described the incident as “tragic” and said the fire was being treated as suspicious until proven otherwise.
The arson squad remain on the scene.
Sgt Major said the family was of Japanese descent with the four killed believed to be a mother and her three children.
“Those people are yet to be identified formally,” he said.
“We’ve also got a male who’s been located at the address and he’s related to the family and he’s been burned and taken to hospital.”
The man is currently incubated and can’t speak to police. Police don’t know how he escaped the fire but the woman and three children couldn’t.
It’s believed he’s the father of the children but police didn’t confirm this.
Sgt Major added the four people were found “in the upstairs ensuite area”.
“It’s very tragic,” he said.
“It appears they’ve all been huddled together in the ensuite.”
One neighbour told the Herald Sun the “whole place was up in smoke”.
“You could just hear screaming,” he told the newspaper.
Another neighbour added she heard an explosion.
“Those poor children couldn’t get out,” she told the paper.
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