The bodies of a woman and two children have been discovered in the blackened ruins of a horror house fire that destroyed a two-storey home in central Queensland.
Emergency crews raced to Whiting Street in Toolooa near Gladstone shortly before 6am on Wednesday and found the home fully alight.
Firefighters spent almost 90 minutes getting the fire under control.
They were unable to get inside the property for several hours after the top storey collapsed during the blaze.Â
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were seen going through the smouldering remains.Â
Three bodies – a woman and two girls – were later located in the smouldering remains of the home.Â
‘Obviously it is a tragic event,’Â Chief Superintendent Luke Peachey said.
‘At this stage we have not established the identity of those three persons, but we hope to do that as soon as we can.’
Multiple people remain unaccounted for after a horror house fire near Gladstone
Toolooa is 5.6km south of Gladstone in central Queensland
Supt Peachey said the cause of the fire and whether or not it’s suspicious was still unknown.Â
‘It will be a number of days before we know the full circumstances of that fire.’
It comes as shocked neighbours recalled being woken by loud explosions and seeing bright orange flames and thick smoke through their windows.Â
‘It sounded like rolling, continuing thunder. We thought it was a thunderstorm. You know how you get like a rolling thunder – it sounded like that,’ one told The Observer.
‘And then just explosions from like gas bottles or something – that’s all you could hear.
‘We looked out the window and saw a big cloud of smoke billowing. It was all just really quick.’
Police remain at the scene of the deadly house blaze
Emergency crews were called to Whiting Street in Toolooa shortly before 6am Wednesday
Fire investigators and detectives remain at the scene.Â
Toolooa is 5.6km south of Gladstone and home to a population of 992, according to the 2021 Census.
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Woman and two children found dead after a fierce blaze destroyed two-storey home at Taolooa – as horrified neighbours reveal hearing ‘explosions’