Corio fire: Two children killed in fire near Geelong identified – as siblings fight for life

An 18-month-old and a three-year-old child have been identified as the two children who tragically died in a barn fire last weekend.

The fire broke out at 10.30am on Sunday in a garden shed at the back of a house on Officer Court in Corio, a suburb of Geelong, south-west of Melbourne.

Emergency services were called to the scene, including police, ambulance and fire brigade.

Two children, Ashlynn, 18 months, and Saige, three, died in the fire, while their two other siblings remain in hospital in critical conditions.

Ambulance Victoria said the two surviving children, who are believed to have not yet attended school, suffered serious burns.

Their father accompanied them to the hospital.

It is understood their mother was in the house and the four children were in the barn when the fire broke out.

The fire is not considered suspicious.

A GoFundMe has since been launched to help support the family.

“This family will never be the same without these children in their lives,” a friend of the family wrote.

“I hope to help this family alleviate the financial costs of putting these beautiful babies to rest, as this is such an unimaginable situation for any parent to experience.”

A local resident, Colin Stevenson, said the deaths had rocked the close-knit community.

‘I could not sleep. I was up at 2am thinking about it,” he told Sunrise on Monday.

‘It’s going to turn the region upside down. You could have heard a needle drop last night because there were no cars driving around or something.

“I think the community is feeling it and people are overwhelmed right now, it’s just horrible. They’re going to keep this up for a long time.”

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.