Two children continue to fight for life in hospital after two others perished in a shed fire southwest of Melbourne.
The four children were playing in the rear shed of a Corio property, near Geelong, on Sunday morning when it caught alight.
Two died at the scene while the other two were flown to the Royal Children’s Hospital, both in a critical condition.
A Royal Children’s Hospital spokeswoman confirmed the children remain in a critical condition as of Monday morning.
A GoFundMe page identified the two dead children, aged 18 months and three years old, and said they were now “beautiful angels”.
“This family will never be the same without these children in their lives,” the page’s organiser said.
“I’m hoping to help this family ease the financial cost of laying those beautiful babies to rest as this is such an unimaginable situation for any parent to go through.”
Police Inspector Emma Bartel said it was a chaotic scene when emergency services arrived and the circumstances of how the fire started were unclear, although it was not being treated as suspicious.
“There is a lot that we don’t know at this stage,” she told reporters.
“We have spoken to a family and we have spoken to neighbours. We are trying to piece together the events of what has taken place.”
Police have spoken to the mother but she wasn’t in a position to provide further details, Insp Bartel said.
Arson detectives are investigating, with police desperate to provide answers to the family and community.
Insp Bartel said some neighbours attempted to come to the rescue before emergency workers arrived.
“It’s a very close-knit community here,” she said.
“There is some long-term relationships amongst the neighbourhood here.
“So there is a lot of this community rallying together for the sake of the … families that are involved.”
Insp Bartel warned it would take time for detectives to get to the bottom of the tragedy.
“It is unfortunately the worse-case scenario of what we could expect with an incident like this,” she said.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
