A man has died while a young woman was rushed to hospital with serious burns after a horror fire engulfed a unit complex.
The blaze broke out at a unit at the rear of a small apartment complex in Amelia St, Albion in Brisbane’s north-east about 4pm on Thursday.
Emergency services rushed to the scene where firefighters entered the burning home and found a man’s body in the living room.
A woman aged in her 30s was pulled from the burning home and treated on the footpath by advanced care paramedics for facial, hand and airway burns.
She was heard screaming as she was stretchered into an ambulance before being rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a serious condition.
A man is dead and a woman suffered serious burns in a unit complex in Brisbane’s north-east
Firefighters spent more than half an hour battling the inferno
‘Tragically a man’s body has been located within the actual unit, crime scene has been declared and investigation are ongoing,’ Inspector Steve Crabbe said.
The fire was battled by crews for 30 minutes before it was under control shortly before 5pm.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Superintendent Graeme Hall described the blaze as a ‘very intense fire’ and completely gutted the living area of the unit.
Shocked neighbours recalled seeing the complex fully alight and a woman’s frantic screams that someone was still inside the burning home.
‘There were flames coming out of the door, I ran to the front of the door at the bottom of the stairs,’ one man told the Courier Mail.
‘The occupant of the house the woman ran out on the road, fell at the end of the driveway, with another woman looking after her, men running around trying to find hoses.’
The complex suffered extensive damage (pictured) in the blaze on Thursday afternoon
Others feared the blaze would spread to neighbouring properties.
‘It sounded like they were throwing things in the back of a ute, metal, the woman kept on screaming,’ one woman recalled.
‘When I came out I saw the flames at the back of the place and I thought my house was going to catch fire.’
The street was cornered off by police tape as police established a crime scene.
Fire crews warned residents in the area to stay inside and close windows and doors to avoid inhaling the smoke.
Investigations into what sparked the blaze are ongoing.
One person is dead after a fire at a unit in the Brisbane suburb of Albion
