This picture taken on May 2, 2021 shows smoke filling the sky as Sydney is enveloped in a thick bank of hazardous bushfire smoke forcing authorities in Australia's largest city to scale back controlled forest burning nearby.
(SAEED KHAN / AFP)
SYDNEY – A fire at a boarding house in Australia's Sydney has killed three people with another in a critical condition. The police have deemed the cause of the fire as "suspicious".
Firefighters were called to a two-level boarding house in Newtown, a suburb in Sydney's inner west, early on Tuesday morning. Firefighters said it took about two hours to get the blaze under control.
Firefighters were called to a two-level boarding house in Newtown, a suburb in Sydney's inner west, early on Tuesday morning
A body was recovered from the rubble in the morning with two more uncovered in the afternoon.
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Police said there were also "serious concerns" for a fourth person who escaped the fire, and is in a "crucial condition" at central Sydney hospital.
In a statement, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter said the incident was being investigated as a murder.
"We are treating this as suspicious – it was an explosion, the flames took hold extremely quickly," he said.
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"It would be fair to say some type of accelerant was used – we are treating this as a murder, we are treating this as a maliciously lit fire."
Residents in surrounding buildings have been evacuated due to instability in the building after the fire.