A quiet residential street in Sydenham, in Melbourne's north-west, was crawling with emergency crews on Monday morning after a massive blaze ripped through a home about 9.40pm on Sunday. Residents reported hearing explosions at the time.

Emergency services were called to the Fergus Court house after reports of a loud bang on Sunday night. Two girls and a boy were rescued from the house, treated at the scene and taken by ambulance to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police are working to determine where the children’s parents were at the time.

The children, aged five, three and one, all remained in a critical condition at the Royal Children’s Hospital on Monday morning. No one else was injured.

Investigation Underway

Detective Acting Inspector Adam Henry, from the arson and explosives squad, said the mother and three children moved into the home 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.

“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. “We are still working to determine who else may have been in the property with the children at the time of the fire or if they were alone.”

Asked where the mother was when the fire erupted, Henry would only say: “We are still working out who was in the property at the time of the fire.” He said investigators had spoken briefly with the mother but “she is with her children, where she should be”.

He said the fire might have burnt for 20 to 30 minutes before emergency services arrived, and the children were all unconscious when pulled from the home.

Neighbors Recall Explosions and a Shake

Neighbours said they heard loud bangs which were so forceful one woman felt her home several houses down shake. She and her partner, as with 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 for “at least 20 minutes”.

“There were explosions … it shook our whole [house],” the woman 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.”

The family are believed to be renters.

Neighbour Debbie Zuccala said she assumed nobody lived at the home and that it was being renovated, because there was a skip bin out the front. “Just the loud bang was really incredible – like a bomb. I’ve never heard anything like it,” Zuccala said. Several more bangs followed, and the neighbour thought it was paint tins or other materials exploding.

“Then later we found out that there were little kids inside. That’s horrifying. Nobody thought there was anyone in there. Otherwise I reckon every single one of us would have been trying to break in to get to the kids.”

A Focus on the Backyard

Arson squad detectives and an arson chemist appeared to focus their investigations on a back 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 is suspicious.

Yaser Raza, whose home office has a direct line of sight to the house, was shocked to hear there might have been no parents inside with the children at the time of the blaze. He works from home Monday to Friday and had not seen anyone move into the property. The last time he saw adults there was when the home was open for inspection on the market weeks ago.

“I’m shocked that anybody lived in there,” he said. “I can see anyone coming in and out. I work here all day. I never noticed anyone.”

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 out from inside 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.

A Heartbreaking Scene

Ambulance Victoria said advanced life support and mobile intensive care paramedics attended the scene. Police urged anyone with information to come forward.

The incident has left the community shaken, with many expressing their shock and sorrow for the children and their family. The investigation is ongoing, and police are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. The events of Sunday night have highlighted the importance of fire safety and the need to be vigilant in protecting children from potential dangers.