Police are treating a deadly house fire in Sydney’s inner-west as deliberately lit after investigations revealed the use of an accelerant in the blaze.
Three people died and police hold serious concerns for a fourth after fire engulfed a boarding house in the suburb of Newtown in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Police are operating under the belief the fire was deliberately lit involving accelerant and an explosion.
“We are treating this as a murder,” NSW Police Assistant Commissioner, Peter Cotter said.
“There was an explosion, the flame took hold extremely quickly. It would be fair to say some type of accelerant has been used.”
Emergency services rushed to the boarding house at the intersection of Probert and Albermarle Streets about 1am Thursday after neighbours woke to the sounds of explosions and found the two-story house alight.
NSW Police confirmed the bodies of three people had been found, with one person still unaccounted for.
The three people are yet to be formally identified.
Police say the building housed at least eleven men, aged 40 and above.
An 80-year-old man who was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital is in a critical condition.
He was forced to jump from a window to escape the fire, sustaining serious leg injuries and later also suffering a heart attack while in hospital.
NSW Ambulance paramedic Braden Robinson said there were “serious concerns for the welfare of residents” when they arrived.
“We treated a number of patients for various injuries including burns and smoke inhalation, three of which required hospitalisation,” he said.
Eight residents were able to exit the building with three people taken to hospital, Acting Superintendent Van Akker told media at 7.30am.
“The building is pretty unstable and we are concerned of a collapse,” he said.
“Being a boarding house, we are not too sure who lived there and who was home,” Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry told 2GB on Tuesday morning.
Police are also keen to talk to the owner of the building, who is from Western Sydney and as of Tuesday afternoon cxjmtzywould not be contacted.
More than 30 firefighters responded to the fire, arriving to find “very intense flames” coming out of the first and second levels of the building.
Witnesses described seeing one resident jump out of a second-storey window to escape the flames.
Firefighters worked quickly to contain the flames that were already touching adjoining properties.
A number of residents lined the streets having made the decision to evacuate their homes in the early hours of the morning.
Witnesses reported hearing a “loud bang” during the blaze though it is unknown yet what caused the explosion.
Police are making inquiries to account for all residents that were supposed to be home at the time of the fire.
The flames were quickly extinguished by firefighters but due to the extreme heat of the blaze, emergency services are waiting on standby in case fire reignites.
NSW Police have established a crime scene and are investigating the circumstances that led to the fire.
