Melbourne townhouse fire: Young parents who died alongside their baby are identified

A young couple and their three-week-old baby who died in a suspicious house fire have been identified.  

The bodies of Abbey Forrest, Inda Sohal and their baby daughter Ivy were found inside a Point Cook townhouse in Melbourne on Wednesday morning after a blaze tore through the property.

Neighbours rushed to help the couple after hearing frantic screams coming from the home but they were unable to break through the door in time to get them out. 

The bodies of Abbey Forrest, Inda Sohal and their baby daughter Ivy were found inside a Point Cook townhouse in Melbourne on Wednesday morning after a blaze tore through the property

Forty firefighters battled the monster blaze for almost an hour which destroyed the townhouse within three minutes and saw two neighbouring houses damaged

Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Kennedy said a neighbour made a ‘heroic and brave effort’ to rescue the occupants with a ladder but was overwhelmed by the intensity of the flames.

‘Sadly they did their best but the fire took its toll and nothing could be done,’ Sen Sgt Kennedy said.

Ms Forrest sister Emily has started a GoFundMe page to raise funds to cover the costs of their funerals.

‘In the early hours of Wednesday, December 2nd, a house fire in Point Cook claimed the lives of my 19-year-old sister, her loving partner and their almost three-week-old daughter,’ she wrote.

‘I’m raising money to help with the cost of funerals and memorials for all three of these beautiful souls who had their lives tragically cut short.

‘Any help is greatly appreciated.’ 

Forty firefighters battled the monster blaze for almost an hour which destroyed the townhouse within three minutes and saw two neighbouring houses damaged. 

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined but it is being treated as suspicious. 

‘It certainly is being treated as suspicious, predominantly because of the intensity of the fire,’ Sen Sgt Kennedy said.

Emergency services rushed to the Totem Way property at Point Cook about 3.40am Wednesday with reports of a two-storey property engulfed in flames

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined but it is being treated as suspicious, as an arson chemist investigates

‘When fire services first got here it was fully engulfed.

‘The townhouse was raging, particularly at the front and upstairs … with accidental fires that doesn’t normally occur.’ 

One of the neighbours, Jemil, said he felt ‘sick to his stomach’ after not being able to rescue the woman he saw trapped inside the home. 

‘We tried everything. We didn’t know what else to do. We couldn’t run into the house,’ he told The Herald Sun. 

He said the woman was gasping for air at one of the top-storey windows and a different neighbour threw an axe in attempt to break it so she could jump out.

Unfortunately when the axe did break the glass the woman ‘went silent’.  

‘It’s kind of horrifying, gruesome and I just feel sick to the stomach knowing there was someone in that house. It’s pretty terrifying,’ he said.  

Lockie Allen and his father live behind the burnt property and said when they ran outside the entire house was engulfed in flames. 

‘We’re right behind so that could have been us… you don’t want to imagine it was us, you don’t want it to be (anyone),’ he said.