Sydney house fire: Australia in shock as three children die in fire linked to alleged domestic violence

Australia’s domestic violence scourge has claimed three more lives — a 10-month old girl and boys aged three and six — with police set to allege a father started the fire which killed the trio, and fought off rescuers trying to save them. Dean Heasman, 28, was under police guard and in an induced coma on Sunday night after the horrifying blaze at a housing commission home in Sydney’s western suburbs. But even as he was being treated, he was also being investigated for what detectives described as a domestic-related multiple homicide. “At this stage it does appear the 28-year-old is responsible for multiple deaths of young lives that have been tragically taken away,” Det-Supt Danny Doherty said. “We’re alleging the 28-year-old man took actions to prevent the young people inside being rescued. There were direct actions taken. “Those actions were intentional of keeping police and other responders and neighbours out of the property while it was on fire. “(Also) with the intention of keeping the kids inside the premises while the fire was happening. We’re saying their intentional acts which would cause harm to the kids.” Those acts reportedly included dragging his own children back into the burning house, before screaming “leave me here to die”. The two boys were taken from the house in a critical condition and rushed to hospital, but could not be revived. The body of the baby girl was later found in the charred remains. Mr Heasman’s long-time partner, a 29-year-old woman, was also in the house as it started burning, with four other children aged between six and 11. They all escaped, were taken to hospital and are expected to recover physically. One of the surviving children reportedly told investigators: “Dad tried to kill us”. “The sensitivity around this has not been lost on us. I think you have to remember these are young lives lost, older siblings have lost their brothers and sister, extended family that lost young lives as well, young kids and relatives and there’s neighbours and friends and school friends,” Det-Supt Doherty said. “That’s a broader picture and then when we’ve had these discussions before, with young lives lost, it’s very difficult but the support will be there.” NSW Police Acting Supt Jason Pietruszka said the efforts of neighbours likely prevented more lives from being lost, as the blaze took hold and emergency services raced to the scene at around 1am. “These types of matters are just devastating. These are tragic circumstances,” Supt Pietruszka said. “The building on fire, police approached, as did a neighbour, quite heroic in what they did in trying to get entry into a place that was well on fire. “The neighbour did try to assist and I believe those actions, as well, saved further life from being lost. So, I think that is the extraordinary measures that were taken. “They then had to bring the offender under arrest.” Fire authorities said crews were confronted with “superheated” conditions, with the likely temperature in the home of between 600 and 700C as they looked for the children. “Going to a house fire, you’re always expecting the worst, hoping it won’t be but this was confronting, absolute chaos,” NSW Fire and Rescue Superintendent Adam Dewberry said. “They got in, commenced their fire-fighting operations, got in and did that search, got those two children out, handed them over to paramedics who then continued with that emergency medical treatment.” “They can’t see . . . they’re getting through under extreme, superheated conditions, while looking for those children. There was heavy fire activity, the flames venting out through both front windows, getting up over the roof line. “They got in under those fire conditions, started to knock down the fire and conducted a search under very extreme conditions.” A helicopter also landed close to the scene, with a trauma doctor and retrieval doctor on scene. Police said no apprehended violence order was in place against Mr Heasman, and he was “not adversely known” to police. Nor was he before the court for any other matters. But there were reports that officers had visited the home for a “welfare check” last week. NSW Police’s Homicide Squad took charge of the investigation on Sunday. Fire investigators, including an accelerant detecting dog, were also at the scene. Just last week, research by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety released new research into filicide — the killing of a child by their parent. The research revealed filicide was the second most common type of domestic homicide in Australia, after intimate partner homicide.