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A blaze that tore through a Sydney nursing home at dawn, killing three elderly residents, was sparked in two places and police are treating it as "suspicious".
Firefighters have been confronted by a horrific scene after a blaze engulfed a nursing home with thick smoke in north-west Sydney this morning, leaving three elderly residents dead and dozens seriously injured.
Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins described the scene as "chaotic" and "tragic" as more than 100 fire crews, police and ambulance officers arrived at the Quakers Hill Nursing Home on Hambledon Road, Quakers Hill, just after 5am.
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"This is a firefighter's worst nightmare," Commissioner Mullins said. "Turning up to a nursing home with elderly people who can't get themselves out of harm's way."
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Robert Redfern has just confirmed three people have been found dead, well down on early reports that up to 10 might have died.
Superintendent Rick Parkes of Fire and Rescue NSW said the victims were found in a six-room ward at the rear of the nursing home.
The likely cause of death was smoke inhalation, Commissioner Redfern said.
Superintendent Parkes said the rear ward was separated from the other parts of the single-storey home when a fire door came down to stop the blaze from spreading.
NSW Ambulance said 50 people with smoke inhalation were taken to nine hospitals - including the Nepean, Blacktown, Mount Druitt and Westmead hospitals - after the fire, which broke out in two rooms.
The blaze took hold at a nursing home on Hambleton Road, Quakers Hill.
NSW Ambulance acting Commissioner Mike Willis said 18 patients had been taken to nine hospitals, and eight of those patients were in a serious condition.
Mr Willis said 44 residents had been moved to Lottie Stewart Hospital for residential care and 79 people are receiving residential care in hospitals around Sydney.
There were no burns patients, Superintendent Parkes added.
There were up to 100 residents in the nursing home and all have now been removed.
Police were treating the fire as "suspicious" and the homicide and arson squads had joined fire investigators and forensic officers at the home, Mr Redfern said.
But he stressed that "all fires such as this" were considered suspicious.
"The homicide squad will lead the investigation," Mr Redfern said.
Police said officers from the the homicide and arson squads were at the site and would be joined by the coroner.
Fire investigators and police forensics teams were at the nursing home, Fire and Rescue NSW said.
The cause of the fire was not yet known but firefighters said, when they arrived, there were two fires at different parts of the home.
"Flames were coming out of the roof at one end of the building and they immediately called for back-up," Mr Willis said, adding that black smoke went down to the bottom of the floor.
"The fire has destroyed beds, every bit of furniture ... fire spread through the roof to other rooms."
He said one of the fires started in a bedroom.
Commissioner Mullins told reporters earlier the fire had been put out but the smoke in the building was very heavy.
"Crews had to literally crawl on their hands and knees into every room in the complex, reach up under the beds, searching cupboards, anywhere where someone may have crawled away," he said.
"So it has taken quite some time because of the thick black smoke to confirm that we had all of the residents cleared."
He added: "You can imagine what it would be like for elderly people in their night clothes, some of them suffering from dementia."
A neighbour who lives over the fence from the nursing home said firefighters jumped over her fence to use her hose to spray down elderly people in beds.
"There were a couple of people in beds ... they were covered in a lot of soot and I would assume they were hosing them as a precaution," said the neighbour, who asked not to be named.
She said it was lucky there was a fire station so close by.
"The fire station hasn't been here all that long. We could have lost a lot more people."
Commissioner Mullins said police and paramedics arrived "en masse".
"It was a real team effort," he said. "A bit like a military operation ... crews from throughout Sydney have responded."
Commissioner Mullins said the firefighters' job was made even harder by a roof collapse.
"[They] had tiles falling on their heads, so it's too unstable for investigators to get into the room that was most badly affected."
Sue Webeck rushed to the home, where her 83-year-old mother, Verna, has lived for 10 years, as soon as she heard the news.
She said she was panicked initially because she didn't know where her mother was.
"We rang everywhere and we couldn't find her," Ms Webeck said. Mrs Webeck was found in a wing near the back door near the car park and her daughter said she was probably one of the first to be evacuated.
She suffered blisters to the face and burns to one of her arms from the heat of the fire.
The nearby Quakers Hill Anglican church is being used as a refuge point and an ambulance bus has just arrived to take the uninjured away to alternative accommodation.
The mayor of Blacktown City, Alan Pendleton, praised the quick response by firefighters, saying that "probably saved a lot of people".
"The new fire station is just a couple of hundred metres up the road."
Cr Pendleton, who travels past the home every day on his way to work, said the deaths were "devastating".
"I think it's tragic, particularly for all the patients and the people living at the home. Most of them are incapacitated or have dementia and unable to evacuate themselves from the building."
He added that the council would be doing what it could to help the nursing home residents and their families.
The blaze was put out "fairly quickly" by more than 50 firefighters, Superintendent Parkes said.
Some elderly residents were lying in beds on the street, waiting to be taken to hospitals or other nursing homes, a witness said.
All nearby roads had been closed, said April Bobin of the Jellyfish Child Centre, which is opposite the home.
The fire is being compared to the Pacific Nursing Home fire in Sylvania Heights on April 29, 1981, in which 16 people died.
The Quakers Hill nursing home is owned by the Domain Principal Group.
The nursing home is a 100-fed facility that offers high, low and respite care, the company's website said.
The compound has a large outdoor undercover area and garden and there is a registered nurse on duty at all times, the site said.
A woman who lives next to the nursing home said she was woken up before 6am by a neighbour and the pair decided to get help.
"I did what I could. I just collected my towels and sheets and whatever I could," said the woman, who asked not to be named.
"It's chaotic ... but everybody seems to be really helping each other out."
The neighbour, who lives over the fence, said emergency services were at the nursing home very quickly after the fire broke out.
"The next thing there was a plume of black smoke coming up as dawn approached.
"Things got chaotic for a little while. It's a very full-on morning.
"It's a very sad thing to have happened. Luckily we are blessed in our area to have so many hospitals and nursing homes to take other patients in."
Some of Australia's worst fire fatalities in recent years, excluding bushfires
❏ November, 2011: An unconfirmed number of nursing home residents die in a fire at Quakers Hill facility in Sydney’s west.
❏ August, 2011: 11 members of an extended family die in a house fire at Slacks Creek south of Brisbane.
❏ June, 2000: 15 die in the Palace Backpackers Hostel, Childers, Queensland.
❏ November 19, 1995: State housing town house in Preston Way, Claymore - 5 dead.
❏ January 15, 1995: Third floor flat in Speed Street, Liverpool - 8 dead.
❏ August 1991: 12 die at the Palm Grove Hostel fire, Dungog, NSW.
❏ September 1989: Six die in the Downunder Hostel at Kings Cross, Sydney.
❏ August 1981: 19 die at the Rembrandt Hotel in Kings Cross, Sydney.
❏ April 1981: 16 die in the Pacific Nursing Home, Sylvania Heights, NSW