 Hello everyone. Thanks for coming in at such short notice. I'm Ian Stewart, the Deputy Commissioner for Regional Operations. My colleagues obviously Steve Hollins, the Chief Superintendent and Operations Coordinator from Southeast Region and the Deputy Commissioner for Queensland Fire and Rescue, Mr. Ian McKenzie. I'll make some, when you're ready, I'll make some brief opening comments and we'll open it up to questions from that point if that's alright. Okay, so everyone's okay at the back? Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This morning at Kingston in Brisbane there was a terrible tragedy, a house fire which resulted, we believe, in the deaths of 11 people. The people who perished rage in age from three to 47 years of age. We also believe at this stage that there are two main groups of deceased who belong to individual families and there is one further person who is a who is also related to one of those families. I wish to place on record the condolences and sympathies of the Queensland Police Service to the extended families of all of those who perished and certainly also to the local community. I believe the community is in shock in the Kingston area where this tragedy has occurred. There is a significant support structure being put in place to address the issues surrounding the community issues at Kingston in terms of the outpouring of grief that's occurring down there. There are a large number of church organisations and police chaplains have been dispatched in the early hours of this morning to assist in that process. There is also significant support from the Salvation Army and a support centre has been opened at a Salvation Army facility in Barden Road at Saxe Creek. I'd like to acknowledge the great work of both the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and Queensland Police in dealing with this tragedy. Many of our frontline officers have been confronted with a with the terrible tragedy that's occurred. Certainly there are large numbers of support staff now working towards the investigation which will report ultimately to the state coroner on the outcome of that investigation. Again I would also like to highlight the fact that there is a need for privacy for the families and the community in that area at this time and our investigation team will be in place for a significant number of days while this investigation is undertaken. A major incident room has been set up at Logan Police Station and there is a forward command post near the scene of the tragedy. We will be guarding the scene continuously until the investigation is completed. We are happy to take any questions that you may have. I perhaps I could hand to Mr McKenzie in relation to that. Thanks Mr Stewart. In relation to the cause it is very very early days. I was on scene this morning and the crews there described to me what they were faced with. It was a very intense fire even then when they arrived so working with police investigators the scenes of crime it will be quite a painstaking process to try and get to the exact cause and it won't be something that's achieved in the short term. When will the house be safe enough that you can go with Andrew Covey's voice? The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service, Urban Search and Rescue teams have been working on site through the day making the floor safe for the investigators to go in. All I can say is it'll be as absolutely as soon as possible to try and bring some closure to the families and the community but obviously safety is the precedent. Are you still treating it as unsuspicious? Yes we are at this point in time. Are you seeing photos of the victims? I doubt very much whether any photos will be released at any time in the near future because those photos become the property of the coroner in terms of the ongoing investigation so it'll be a matter for the coroner at some stage. And what about the ages and details of the victims? Certainly at this stage I know that some ages have been released. I'm simply telling you today at this time the ages range between 3 and 47. How many of the 11 actually live in that particular premises do we know? Steve? Look there were 13 people there at the time. At this stage whether it appears their household was asleep at the time or whether people were awake with the fireplace? We do understand that everyone was asleep except one person. It's fairly early at this point in time but that's how understanding. Why was there really any indication of how they? Two got out through windows and one person was already outside. Which one did they get? One got out from a window at the front of the premises and another got out from a window at the side. Were there other people trying to escape behind them once they left? Or did they not know where the other families were at the time? I think ultimately the investigation will look into all of those facts. This is very very early days and you can just imagine how traumatised those three survivors are. So whilst there has been some preliminary enquiries made with them obviously a more fulsome investigation will be required. Given the extent of the fire when it broke out was there any danger to neighbours on either side of the property? Certainly the intensity of the fire did cause some superficial damage to neighbouring properties and that was the focus of the crews once they realised obviously that rescue was not an option to protect the properties on either side and that's what they said about doing. Can someone share with gas cylinders? Certainly at the side of the premises there were four large domestic gas cylinders all connected to the house and all of them were involved in the fire so they added to the problems. There was also two vehicles that were well involved in fire in the front and the side. All of which posed problems and risks to the firefighters. Can I just clarify, you say that 13 people were in the house but we've got that three people survived and 11 people. Sorry it would be 14 years. So obviously it was an intense fire, how hard is it going to be to find out what caused this fire? The investigating process will be a painstaking one for both the police investigators and the fire investigators. They do look for certain traits and things that point to where the fire started and then look in that area for anything that would have been likely to cause it and certainly statements from the survivors will be all important. Are there any closer to knowing if there were smoke lines better than the home? At this stage we're no closer to. I'm sure that will form part of the police and coronial investigation and that will come to light. You mentioned statements from the survivors. Obviously they're doing a lot of trauma. Have you managed to interview them formally yet? It's my understanding that at least one of those has been interviewed but as I said before the degree of trauma that's been suffered and the hurt and pain obviously there will probably need to be followed up in investigations and further statements before we can be definitive. Any idea of the injuries that they might have sustained? I understand that one person suffered a possibly a fractured shoulder and I think the others got out okay without any injuries. He's at the moment, yes. What did it take from your agency services to arrive once they've received that first call? The first fire crews were on scene in under seven minutes and the first call was received just after four minutes past midnight. How many calls did you receive? There were many triple zero calls. I think that they're going to need counselling themselves. For all the emergency service workers on scene certainly all the emergency services offer support and guidance to our crews. In the first instance we try and do that as quickly as possible if they would like and that has happened already today and that support will be ongoing. Obviously until the investigation identifies the actual cause we have to treat this as suspicious but at this stage we haven't got anything that is deeming it to be suspicious. The major incident room is set up as we do with every major investigation to ensure that the investigation is absolutely thorough and rigorous. Folks unless there's anything else that you'd like to ask us? Ian McKenzie, Deputy Commissioner, Queensland Fire and Rescue Service. M-A-C-K-E-N-Z-I-E. Stephen Hollins, Chief Superintendent, Operations Coordinator, Southeastern Police Region, Service Paradise. And Steve's been on site since about... Probably at five o'clock this morning. So he's been managing the police response as is appropriate in the circumstances. I suppose we could say that we...