IF ONLY IT HAD BEEN MINUTES EARLIER… — Two Children Found De-ad After Inferno Destroys Home, As Parents Reveal the Dream That Was Almost Within Reach

A grieving mother is rushing home from Queensland after two of her children were killed in a house fire in NSW‘s Blue Mountains overnight.

Emergency services were called to the family’s home on Lieutenant Bowen Road in Bowen Mountain around 2am on Monday following reports of a fire.

Five people, including a man in his 30s, a teenage boy and two primary school-aged boys, were inside and managed to escape the flames.

Tragically, two children were unaccounted for.

NSW Police confirmed later on Monday morning the children had been found inside the ruins of the two-storey home – one body was found upstairs and another downstairs.

‘We have located the bodies, we believe to be that of the two children, but of course as you can appreciate, it is a coroners investigation and we can’t confirm those details until a formal investigation has taken place,’ Hawkesbury Police Area Commander Nadine Roberts told reporters.

‘It’s an incredibly confronting situation, not only for the community and the families, but also the first responders who had to attend.’

Superintendent Roberts said police were unable to confirm the ages of the deceased children until the formal investigation has taken place.

The tragedy comes as it was revealed the family were due to move to Queensland today, with the mother having left a day earlier.

Neighbours told the ABC the family, which includes six children aged between 16 and three, were in the process of moving to the Sunshine State when the fire broke out.

The blaze, which took two firefighters two hours to get under control, caused extensive damage to the home.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Trent Curtin said the damage caused by the fire made the search for the children more difficult for firefighters, with investigators forced to use drones and a canine detection dog.

‘There are parts of the home that are still hot and smouldering, and many parts of the home have collapsed, so firefighters are moving into the home with hose lines to gain access to areas where they can search for the unaccounted-for people in the home,’ he said.

‘This is a two-storey home, and so it would have been very, very dangerous for firefighters to access the home in the early stages with the home fully engulfed in flames.’

A NSW Ambulance spokesman told Daily Mail four people were taken to Nepean Hospital with smoke inhalation and minor injuries.

They remain in a stable condition.