Mother and four children killed in Essex house fire

A woman and four young children have died after a house fire at Harlow in Essex. Police are treated the blaze as suspicious.

Fire crews were called to Barn Mead in Harlow at 1.45am on Monday. The occupants of the property were rescued, but a spokeswoman for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said a woman and three children died.

Firefighters called to the scene described the house as being "100% well alight", with flames coming from the front and back doors.

Assistant divisional officer Steve Foster, incident commander, said: "Crews arriving at the scene did everything they could. They were faced with a rapidly developed fire and went straight into the burning building wearing breathing apparatus to bring people out as quickly as possible."

A spokeswoman for the service said the father was not at home when the blaze broke out, and the four fatalities occurred at the scene.

She said: "We understand that firefighters brought them out of the house and were doing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) outside, and that they were confirmed dead at the scene. The incident is now in the hands of Essex Police."

Essex Police confirmed that three children and a woman had died in the blaze, and that two people were taken to hospital, one of them in a critical condition. It was later confirmed that a fourth child had died in hospital.

A police statement said: "The cause of the fire is under investigation and detectives are looking at the circumstances leading up to the fire, and ask that anyone who was in the area of Barn Mead in the early hours of Monday and has any information contacts police at Harlow police station on 101."

A joint police and fire service investigation will be carried out to establish the cause of the blaze.