‘Extremely tragic’: Four children critical after fatal fire


Only ash and twisted metal mark where the six-year-old and one adult died in the flames. Photo: ABC/Elias Clure
Four children remain in a critical condition in hospital and three people are now confirmed to have died in a deadly house fire at a holiday house in country Victoria over the Queen’s birthday long weekend.
The children, members of a group of 13 from two families, are all in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne on Monday after fire broke out at a property at Tyaak, 100 kilometres north of Melbourne.
Police said a man, 33 and a six-year-old boy died in the home on Cunninghams Road on Saturday after fire engulfed the property about 11.40pm.
A 34-year-old man was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died on Sunday afternoon just after 5pm, police said on Monday.
A Victoria Police spokesperson said on Monday afternoon the fire, which took an hour and a half to bring under control, was not being treated as suspicious.
She said the remaining occupants in the house at the time were three women aged 32, 36 and 61, two men aged 33 and 64, four boys (two aged 1 and two aged 5 years old) and one girl, 3.
Firefighters took an hour and a half to bring the blaze under control.

The holiday home remained a crime scene on Monday. Photo: ABC News
Three other adults were taken to hospital in serious conditions and one adult was in a stable condition, Ambulance Victoria said.
It is understood other people were assessed at the scene.
Seymour Sergeant Daniel Raynor said the Arson and Explosives Squad was investigating the cause of the blaze and he expected the probe to extend while detectives speak to family members in hospital.
“Given the extremely tragic circumstances and the situation that we now have, those conversations and those investigations, I dare say, will be ongoing for some time,” he said on Sunday.
CFA commander Charles Cleary told the ABC on Sunday 14 fire appliances were sent to the property, with a number of other support
“There were quite a number of individuals who were at the property,” he said.
“It took approximately an hour and a half to get the fire under control.”
The ABC reported the small locality of Tyaak, just off the Hume Freeway, had a population of just 73 in the 2016 Census.