Toolooa: Three people confirmed dead after fire rips through two storey home

Police have confirmed the remains of three people have been found after fire gutted a two storey home in Queensland.

Neighbours raised the alarm and emergency services rushed to the property on Whiting Street in Toolooa, Gladstone at 5.56am on Wednesday.

Four fire crews responded and when they arrived the house was fully engulfed in flames. They managed to bring the blaze under control by about 7.20am.

Police Chief Superintendent Luke Peachey said it was a tragedy.

“At this stage we have not established the identity of those three persons but we hope to do that as soon as we can,” he said.

Supt. Peachey said he could not rule out finding other bodies.

“Obviously, the fire scene is very horrific for all first responders and everyone involved, and it will take some time to go through before we can confirm the exact numbers.”

A neighbour described the sound of the fire as like “rolling continuing thunder”.

“It sounded like rolling, continuing thunder. We thought it was a thunderstorm. You know how you get like a rolling thunder – it sounded like that,” they told the Courier Mail.

“And then just explosions from like gas bottles or something – that’s all you could hear.

“We looked out the window and saw a big cloud of smoke billowing. It was all just really quick.”

A spokesperson for Queensland Fire Department said fire investigators will be attending the scene to investigate the cause of the blaze.