Three children remain in critical condition after blaze in Sydenham

Police are continuing to investigate the cause of a devastating blaze that left three young children clinging to life in Melbourne.

Transcript

00:00The Royal Children's Hospital has said that these three young children remain in a critical

00:07condition. So that's a three-year-old boy and two girls aged five and just 21 months

00:13old. Sadly, their condition has not improved since they were brought in on Sunday night

00:19after that truly horrible fire in Sydenham, which is about 22 kilometres northwest of

00:25Melbourne's CBD. Now we've heard from neighbours who reported hearing a loud bang like an explosion

00:32and when firefighters arrived, they found the rear of the home fully engulfed in flames

00:38and that's when they discovered inside these three young unconscious children who'd suffered

00:43from smoke inhalation. Police say they still don't have any updates in terms of their investigations

00:48this morning. They were at the scene combing through that wreckage yesterday, trying to

00:53piece together exactly what might have caused this blaze and whether or not these children

00:58were alone in the home at the time. Now police say that the mother and biological father

01:04are known to them and at this stage it's still too early to determine whether or not there

01:09are any suspicious circumstances surrounding this fire, but they have said that at the

01:14moment they haven't been able to formally interview the mother because she's understandably

01:20been too distressed and has remained at the children's bedside here at the Royal Children's

01:24Hospital. But our thoughts of course at the moment are with those three young children

01:29because their conditions are still critical, so they are still fighting for their lives.