Four bodies found after a house fire at Emerald in Queensland

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Investigations are underway into a house fire which has left four people dead in the central Queensland town of Emerald. The victims are yet to be formally identified. The local mayor Janice Moriarty has expressed her sympathy while the premier David Crisafulli says the tragedy will send shockwaves through the community. According to police there were six people inside at the time of the fire and two managed to escaped.

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00:00Whilst I can confirm we've lost four people in the fire, one man was in his 30s, we have

00:09another female teenager and a girl and a boy under two years of age.

00:14And were they related to each other or known to each other?

00:17I can't speculate on the exact relationship of the victims at this stage, that's something

00:22we'll be able to confirm tomorrow.

00:23What kind of scene were emergency services confronted with when they arrived there this morning?

00:28Yeah, as you can imagine, a fire fully engulfed is one thing, but learning four lives lost

00:34inside, it's been quite traumatic on all emergency services, and obviously our priority is the

00:40families and extended families of the victims, but also emergency services workers will require

00:45some support in coming days.

00:47And those people who passed away, were they living at that property?

00:51Not full time, and again it's really hard for me to confirm the relationships and the

00:57exact living arrangements of that particular house at this time.

01:00Were there more people in the home at the time?

01:02Did anyone escape?

01:03Yeah, luckily we had two people escape the fire, so we had six people inside and we lost

01:08four, so two people did escape the fire.

01:10And what age and gender were they?

01:12I can't confirm at this stage.

01:14Were they treated at the hospital for injuries?

01:16How were they?

01:17Both were taken to hospital, but with more psychological injuries than physical.

01:22Are you treating the fire as suspicious?

01:24At this stage there's a full investigation underway and it's involving a lot of specialist sections

01:29from Rockhampton and also from Brisbane to determine the exact cause of the fire, but

01:33I can't speculate at this point in time.

01:35Has the homicide squad been tasked with the job?

01:37No, not this time.

01:38Neighbours have told us that people were using hoses and water bottles, can you talk about

01:42the efforts of neighbours who tried to help?

01:44My understanding is the informant who contacted police heard the fire and contacted emergency

01:49services and there were neighbours using small garden hoses, but as you can imagine it

01:55was well engulfed by the time it had to be extinguished by CUFIS.

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