Tributes are flowing for a three-year-old boy who died in an early morning house fire in Melbourne’s outer west, as his badly burned father is treated in hospital.
Emergency services were called to Newbury Street in Werribee just after midnight on Monday.
Crews extinguished the blaze before finding a child deceased inside while a male resident was taken to hospital with serious injuries, Victoria police said.
The preschooler was identified as Jordan Dashwood in a GoFundMe page launched by a family friend.
“Little Jordan was a bright light in this world, full of innocent joy, and his absence leaves a void that can never be filled,” the organiser, Jardine Jackson, wrote.
Jordan’s mother, Janelle, and his older brother managed to escape the property, while his father, Jeremy, remains in a coma in hospital, she said.
The 40-year-old father of two suffered burns when attempting to save his son, according to multiple media reports. Two family dogs died at the scene.
“In a single night, this family’s entire world was reduced to ashes,” Jackson said.
“They did not just lose their home; they lost their precious little boy, their loyal pets, their memories.”
Fire crews arrived at the scene to find the single-storey brick home fully alight, Fire Rescue Victoria said.
It took about an hour for 40 firefighters, including Country Fire Authority crews, to bring the blaze under control.
Authorities remained at the scene late on Monday morning, with forensics personnel seen studying the charred house.
The property was cordoned off with police tape, with ash laying in a heap beneath a blackened, hollowed-out front door frame.
The circumstances surrounding the fire were being investigated but it was not being treated as suspicious, police said. An arson chemist was to attend the scene.
Victoria police declined to comment on media reports that investigators would consider whether an e-scooter battery sparked the blaze.
The ABC reported firefighters were told children were trapped inside the burning house but some managed to get out.