Truganina house fire leaves one woman dead, home destroyed in Melbourne’s west

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An innocent woman is dead, and two offenders are on the run after an arson attack that police believe targeted the wrong house. The 27-year-old died in the blaze which destroyed a three-storey townhouse in Melbourne’s west. A warning, this story contains some graphic footage.

Transcript

00:00A towering inferno engulfing a Trugganina townhouse in what police believe is a botched

00:10arson attack.

00:11These offenders have targeted the wrong address, which is nothing short of a tragedy.

00:17CCTV from a neighbouring house shows a car on Dover Street just after 2am.

00:23One person gets out as the car pulls up.

00:26Minutes later, the blaze erupts, quickly engulfing the three-storey house as the offenders

00:31speed away.

00:32The flames so intense, firefighters were unable to rescue a young woman who was looking after

00:37the house.

00:38It's probably her first time really away and by herself, house-sitting for her brother

00:43who's on a honeymoon and she's been subjected to the most appalling, despicable act one

00:51could imagine.

00:52Trapped inside, the 27-year-old woman raised the alarm herself, frantically calling triple

00:57zero for help.

00:59Emergency services arrived just minutes later, but the fire had already taken hold.

01:05Neighbours today revealing they desperately tried to contact the young woman trapped inside.

01:09I didn't expect fire next to me, it's a huge fire.

01:13One of the neighbours does have a contact and had a contact number so we tried to reach

01:17them but there's no response from their phone.

01:19The family has been contacted, they are clearly, obviously and utterly devastated.

01:25Investigators are searching for the two offenders who they believe attacked the wrong house.

01:30They have deliberately, from what we've seen, jumped over a fence and targeted this premises.

01:36I believe targeted the wrong premises and now we're looking for two murderers.

01:42Detectives say the young woman was completely innocent and there are no criminal links to

01:47her family or to the home.

01:50Police are stumped as to the motive but they're unequivocal about one thing, this was an arson

01:55attack with tragic consequences.

01:58This girl did not deserve to lose her life.

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