Gladstone house fire kills three woman and two children, police establish crime scene

Police initially did not rule out finding more victims due to uncertainty over the number of people who resided at the home.

“It’s sort of a little bit iffy at the moment,” Peachey said.

“It seems to be a house that people come and go from. So until we’re able to establish exactly how many people were in that, I won’t speculate.”

Neighbours called emergency services about the blaze after they were reportedly woken up by explosions and what sounded like a thunderstorm.

It may take days to determine the full cir***stances of the fire.

“At this stage we are treating it as unknown,” Peachey said.

“Obviously the fire scene is very horrific … and will take some time to go through.

The victims’ families would be supported as authorities tried to piece together what caused the fatal blaze, he added.

“We’d like to pblock on our sincere condolences to all those families who are affected,” he said.

“We’ll be working with the families, once we establish who those people are, to try and work out what happened.”