Health News at Your Fingertips

Three young children have escaped uninjured from a suspicious house fire south of Brisbane which killed a woman, and left a man with critical burns and another woman with suspected airway burns, reports AAP.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire which broke out at a home in New Beith, near Logan, just before 3am on Thursday.

Paramedics arrived to find five people outside the home as firefighters tried to put out the blaze.

“We have arrived to find that a house was pretty well engulfed in flames,” Ambulance Operations Supervisor Simon McInnes said in a statement.

The three children – aged two, three and five – were not injured, but the two adults were.

A 33-year-old man who lived at the home suffered critical burns to most of his body and was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital at Herston.

Paramedics also took the woman, aged 30, to hospital with suspected airway burns.

The children were taken to the Queensland Children’s Hospital at south Brisbane as a precaution.

Police later found the body of a 31-year-old woman – who didn’t live at the home but knew the residents – inside the burnt-out building.

“Preliminary investigations by police suggest the fire is suspicious,” Queensland Police said in a statement.

“A crime scene has been declared and investigations into this matter are now under way.”

Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is speaking with ABC radio now, defending against accusations that flood-affected Labor electorates, including Richmond which includes the town of Ballina, have been unfairly ignored in the flood response.

Host Patricia Karvelas:

Tweed, Byron and Ballina. Will you grant them the extra support?

Joyce:

I don’t make that decision. The NRAA [National Recovery and Resilience Agency] makes that decision. They make a recommendation to us.

Karvelas:

You’re the deputy prime minister. You’ve heard the concerns from the community. So do you go back to that agency and say “Can you relook at this?” and do you do that urgently.

Joyce:

They’re looking at it. That’s happening now.

Karvelas:

When was that? When can you give me some explanation?

Joyce:

I’ll be talking to the minister this morning. I’ve been talking to Bridget McKenzie, obviously, this morning and getting rundown that they have, they’re having a predominantly review of that process.