An 18-month-old and a three-year-old have been identified as the two children tragically killed in a shed fire over the weekend.
The blaze broke out inside a garden shed out the back of a home on Officer Court in Corio, a suburb of Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, at 10:30am on Sunday.
Emergency services were called to the scene including police, ambulance and fire and rescue crews.
Two children, Ashlynn McGregor, 18 months, and Saige McGregor, three, lost their lives in the fire, while their two other siblings, a girl and a boy, remain in hospital in critical conditions.
Two children, Ashlynn, 18 months, and Saige, three, (pictured together) lost their lives in the fire in Geelong on Sunday, while their two other siblings remain in hospital in critical conditions
Ambulance Victoria said the two surviving children, who are understood to be of pre-school age, suffered severe burns.
Their father accompanied them to the hospital.
It’s understood their mother was inside the house and the four children were in the shed when the blaze broke out.
The fire is not being treated as suspicious.
A GoFundMe has since been launched to help support the family.
Ashlynn and Saige (pictured centre) were unable to be saved after the fire tore through the shed on Sunday
‘This family will never be the same without these children in their lives,’ a friend of the family wrote.
‘I’m hoping to help this family ease the financial cost of laying those beautiful babies to rest as this is such an unimaginable situation for any parent to go through.’
One local resident, Colin Stevenson, said the deaths had rocked the tight-knit community.
‘I couldn’t sleep. I was up at 2am in the morning thinking about it,’ he told Sunrise on Monday.
‘It is going to rock the area. You could hear a needle drop last night because there were no cars going around or anything.
Emergency services were called to the scene including police, ambulance and fire and rescue crews
‘I think the community is feeling it and the people are overwhelmed at the moment, it’s just terrible. They will be feeling this for a long time.’
An investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire.
A report will be prepared for the Coroner.