Arson police are set to investigate a property in Melbourne’s West after a woman was killed in a house fire overnight.
Firefighters were called to Dover St in Truganina about 2.14am on Thursday, where they found a three-storey townhouse engulfed in flames.
Crews attempted to conduct a search of the home but were limited by the intensity of the fire.
Fire Rescue Victoria battled the blaze for more than two hours, bringing the fire under control at about 4.30am.
The building still remained too hot for fire crews to enter in the hours after.
A woman was found dead at the scene, but she is yet to be formally identified.
Emergency services initially suspected the home contained two occupants but now believe just the one woman was present at the time of the fire.
‘The incident is being treated as suspicious, and the scene was handed to Victoria Police,’ A Fire Rescue Victoria spokesperson said.
Fire crews worked through the morning to contain a house fire that has left one woman dead
Arson police have begun investigating the cause of the fire, and set up a crime scene at the town house
The spokesperson said the blaze had caused a partial structural collapse in the building.
Police established a crime scene at the property.
Arson chemists are set to further investigate the cause of the fire.
A Truganina man told Daily Mail Australia the situation he recalled hearing a loud noise after midnight.
‘There was loud bang noise around 2.15am and within minutes whole house was on fire,’ he said.
A nearby resident told the Herald Sun she was in her backyard about 2am when she heard loud, consecutive bangs.
‘It sounded like fireworks,’ she said.
Ms Dibb claimed she could see flames rising high above the town house’s roof.
‘The roof was fully engulfed. It was ferocious.’
‘It was quite distressing – knowing there might be people in there.’
A community advice warning was issued for smoke in the immediate area.
Police have appealed for anybody with information to come forward by contacting Crime Stoppers.
More to come.
One local said she heard loud bangs after 2am and saw the home engulfed in flames
