A infant has been killed and four children and an adult injured in a horrific house fire in Tasmania on Sunday morning.
Police and emergency services responded to reports of a fire at Rokeby shortly before 9am.
The house was alight when fire crews arrived to contain the blaze. A child and an adult were pulled from the home and rushed to the Royal Hobart hospital with serious injuries.
Three other children were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Firefighters were not able to reach the infant in time.
Speaking to the ABC, a woman who had noticed the fire and alerted emergency services said it was already out of control with “flames everywhere, out all the windows, lots of smoke”.
“All the neighbours were coming to help … there was one man that had [taken] a fire extinguisher over and he smashed windows and got kids out,” she said.
She said she also heard windows exploding and people screaming.
In a statement, Tasmanian police offered condolences to the family. “Our thoughts and condolences are with everyone affected,” it said.
Tasmanian fire service investigators have begun an investigation into the cause of the fire and police will prepare a report for the coroner.
