An infant has died and two other people have been seriously injured in a house fire at Rokeby on Hobart's eastern shore. Police say three other children were also taken to hospital, with non-life threatening injuries. There will be an investigation into the cause of the fire, and police will prepare a report for the coroner.
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00:00Thick smoke filled the neighbourhood in Rokeby this morning as a fire consumed a family home.
00:08When emergency services arrived, the house on Ben Boyd Circle was fully engulfed.
00:13In the early stages the information was that people were trapped so it wasn't just putting
00:18the fire out, they were trying to rescue people there and they did a magnificent job in the
00:22circumstances.
00:23But in the wreckage of the destroyed home, the body of a girl said to be about a year
00:28old was found.
00:30Another young child is now in a critical condition in hospital and an adult is being treated
00:35for cuts on the arm.
00:37Six others, including three children, were also taken to hospital.
00:41This witness called the fire service after noticing the blaze from her car.
00:45All the neighbours were coming to help and some very brave people went to help their
00:52neighbours, which was lovely.
00:53There was one man that took a fire extinguisher over and he smashed windows and got kids out.
00:58And it wasn't just a distressing scene for locals.
01:02When I arrived there, I had police and paramedics doing CPR on children, on an adult.
01:09And at the same time I'm looking at that to the right, I've got firefighters doing everything
01:13they can to try and save whoever's in the house.
01:17Police haven't confirmed what caused the fire.
01:19There's nothing to suggest anything suspicious but it's important that we keep an open mind
01:24and look at everything and that's going to take some time.
01:27Police are urging anyone who witnessed the fire or who has any information to come forward
01:32as they piece together the circumstances that led up to this devastating event.